


Show Me the Stars

by hero_hero



Series: Foxbody [5]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Animals, Astronomy, Bittersweet, Constellations, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fox!Jeongin, Growing Old, Happy Ending, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Minho is the moon, POV Alternating, Touch-Starved, jisung is the sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23497459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hero_hero/pseuds/hero_hero
Summary: In which Jisung and Minho decide to experience life on Earth themselves and accidentally send the planet (and their friends) into a panic.~Conclusion to the Foxbody Series~
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Kim Seungmin/Lee Felix, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Foxbody [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1641826
Comments: 62
Kudos: 199





	Show Me the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> ***Please read the other four parts before reading this***
> 
> There are probably a lot of plot holes and typos in this so please just ignore those. Hope you guys enjoy anyways, though!

Changbin was sitting down by the river, enjoying the warm summer day as he wrote in the notebook in his lap, when the sun spoke to him.

“Changbin! My man! What is _up,_ my dude!”

Changbin couldn’t help snorting and looking up at the sky. “What’s up? You’re up.”

“Ha, ha, that was so funny,” Jisung said sarcastically. “But seriously, it’s been a long time, man! Haven’t talked to you lately! Thought it was a perfect time to just catch up and _chat_ , y’know? How’ve ya been? Have you been working out lately? You look _buff,_ like _damn_ I remember when you were this skinny kid—”

“What do you want, Jisung?”

“What!” Jisung fake-gasped. “Why would I, one of your long-time, _dear_ friends ever want a _reason_ to talk to my buddy? You think so low of me.”

Changbin just arched an eyebrow at him.

Jisung eventually sighed and mumbled, “Was wondering if you could teach me how to shift.”

“What?” Changbin blinked in surprise.

“I want you to teach me how to shift!” Jisung shouted.

“Like, into a human?”

“No, into a sunflower— _yes_ , into a human!” Jisung huffed.

“At least if you were a sunflower you wouldn’t be so obnoxious. You’d actually be pretty for once instead of just pretty annoying.”

“Hey!”

Changbin smirked. “Why, exactly, do you want to shift into a human? Just curious.”

“Why do I have to explain everything? Can’t I just say that I want to be human and leave it at that?”

“Nope.” Changbin’s smirk stretched into a smug smile.

“Ugh,” Jisung. “Just so you know, if Woojin was still there, I’d totally be asking him instead.”

“He’s literally right there next to you—why can’t you just ask him anyways?”

“He’s busy with Chan.”

“Oh, busy making out with Chan.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Keep up, Binnie.”

Changbin snorted again.

“So…?” Jisung prompted hopefully.

“Are you even allowed to shift?” Changbin asked.

“What are you, my mother? I don’t even _have_ a mother.”

“I’m just saying. You’re the sun, Jisung.”

“I am aware,” Jisung said.

“No, I mean, Earth and the humans need you,” Changbin said. “I don’t think you can shift without causing major problems down here.”

“I’m powerful and bright enough that the worst it’ll do is make it a little colder and a little dimmer,” Jisung said. “And I’m not saying I’ll become a human _forever_. I’m just saying that I want to know what it’s like. Wanna be able to join in on all those fun experiences and conversations you guys have down there! I’m sick of feeling left out, okay?”

He sounded so sad. So desperate. So lonely. Changbin sighed. He could understand all of that. After all, he had felt it. Woojin had felt it. Jeongin had felt it too. Everyone who became human down on Earth did so for the same reason—they wanted to belong somewhere. They were sick of feeling lost. Just because Jisung had the most people paying attention to him didn’t mean that he wasn’t lonely.

So Changbin sighed again and said, “I’ll tell you how to shift, _but_ you have to promise me something.”

“Sure, sure, anything!” Jisung said, the rays of sunlight sparkling with excitement.

“You can’t actually shift until you discuss it with other people, got it? Can’t have you wrecking havoc when you disappear from the sky or something.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it,” Jisung said impatiently. “I’m not an idiot, you know. I _have_ thought of other people besides me.”

“Jisung.”

“What?”

“You gotta promise.”

“Fine, fine, I promise. There. Now teach me how to shift.”

Changbin took a deep breath and closed his notebook. “Alright. It’s pretty simple, actually. All you have to do is…”

*

Jeongin was dreaming. He was dreaming that he was sitting on Hyunjin’s couch, and that Hyunjin was kissing him. It was so warm. Hyunjin was giggling and murmuring sweet things in between each kiss. In the end, he just kept saying over and over again, “I love you, I love you, I love you—”

Jeongin remembered his chest feeling like it was on fire, and that fire kept growing and growing until he was consumed by it. He glanced down in the middle of kissing Hyunjin and saw that the fire had reached the outside of his body and that he was practically glowing with light. At first he panicked, already worrying about what this would do to Hyunjin, but then he realized that Hyunjin was glowing too. The longer they kissed, the brighter they became, until they rivaled even those of the Celestial Sphere.

It was a strange dream. Jeongin woke up to find himself staring at the ceiling, still blinking away the blinding light in his dream. It had felt so real.

But before the familiar ache of longing could take over, he heard someone murmur, “Good morning.”

Jeongin turned his head to the side and found Hyunjin’s face less than a hairsbreadth away from his. Their noses touched, which made both of them grin.

“Morning,” Jeongin whispered.

“Sleep well?” Hyunjin asked.

“Mm-hmm. I dreamed of you.”

“Maybe we dreamed the same dream, because I dreamed of you too.”

It was so cheesy, but Jeongin couldn’t help giggling anyways. His entire body filled with happy tingles as Hyunjin closed the last few inches of space between them and kissed him. Jeongin rolled over onto his side, closing his eyes and sighing happily as they kissed and kissed, pressing their bodies together so there was no space left between them at all. And even then, Jeongin wished they could be even closer.

“I have an idea,” Hyunjin said in between kisses.

“Oh no,” Jeongin said.

“ _Oh no_?” Hyunjin pulled away for a second, grinning down at Jeongin, who opened his eyes to gaze up at him with a smirk. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean,” Jeongin said, sticking his tongue out at Hyunjin.

“Meanie,” Hyunjin said before kissing him again. “But really—” he pulled away again. “I was thinking we could just…lay in bed all day?”

“That’s what we did yesterday.” Jeongin grinned again.

“So?” Hyunjin giggled. “Is that a crime or something?”

“No, a crime is you taking all this time to talk when you should be kissing me instead.”

Hyunjin snorted. “So demanding.” But he wasted no time leaning back down and kissing Jeongin. This time, he let his hands wander a bit, just down to Jeongin’s waist, where he slipped his hand under Jeongin’s shirt. Sometimes he kept moving his hand, which usually made Jeongin squirm and giggle, since it felt absolutely _heavenly_ to have someone run their hand up and down his skin. At the same time, he was also somewhat ticklish. Right now, though, Hyunjin just kept his hand there, using his thumb to rub soothing circles into Jeongin’s skin.

He was so warm. Jeongin was so warm. He loved it.

He loved _Hyunjin_.

“So…” Hyunjin prompted in between kisses again.

Jeongin sighed. “I kind of want a shower. And food.”

“But then we’ll come right back to bed, right?”

“Sure.”

“Yay!” Hyunjin gave a little cheer that made Jeongin giggle. “I just want to hold you.”

“Then when it gets boring, we can just sleep,” Jeongin said.

Hyunjin snorted. “Bold of you to assume that I’d _ever_ get bored of kissing you.”

“Yeah, but _I_ get bored.”

“Then we’ll just stop and gaze into each other’s eyes and I’ll tell you all the things I love about you.”

His tone was somewhat teasing, but Jeongin blushed anyways. He loved the sound of that a little too much. It made his chest swell with even more warmth than before. Anything more and it might just be unbearable, especially with Hyunjin’s added heat as well.

They kissed for a few minutes more, but then Jeongin’s stomach growled so loudly that they had to stop, partially because they were laughing so hard.

“Alright,” Hyunjin said, still giggling. “Guess Baby’s hungry, huh?”

Jeongin shoved his face away playfully, saying, “I need food, okay!”

Hyunjin just laughed and came back to him, wrapping his arms around him and hugging him tightly. He pressed more kisses to Jeongin’s face. “Alright, alright, we’ll get up now and get some food.”

But, despite that, they still took their time getting out of bed. Jeongin blamed it on Hyunjin, who whined every time Jeongin tried to wriggle away and always pulled Jeongin back down. Anyone else might find that annoying, and there _were_ instances when Jeongin _was_ annoyed, but right now, he was still too giddy with overwhelming feelings of love and affection for Hyunjin that he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Eventually, they stumbled out of the room together. They were in Jeongin’s apartment this time, with all the blinds closed and all the doors shut and locked. Hyunjin had even turned off his phone yesterday, just so they could enjoy their time together. He said he wanted to give Jeongin his full attention, and that’s exactly what he did. It made Jeongin smile and his heart swell with happiness every time he thought about it.

Hyunjin gave Jeongin one last kiss before heading to the kitchen to fix them breakfast while Jeongin headed to the bathroom. Jeongin caught his expression in the mirror and snorted at it. His hair was sticking up in all directions and there was a love-struck, dopey smile on his face while his eyes looked dazed but happy. He was happy. He was finally happy.

Usually he’d be afraid of how happy he was, but he found that when he was with Hyunjin now, he wasn’t as afraid as he used to be, if at all. With Hyunjin, he felt like he could face anything. He could even face running a bookstore all day, if that meant he could come home to Hyunjin every night. Sure, things might change, but he knew that he and Hyunjin wouldn’t. They’d stay right by each other’s side, till the very end.

Jeongin smiled at his reflection, finished up in the bathroom, and walked out to the kitchen.

“How about waffles?” Hyunjin asked. “With fresh fruit? Maybe even some whipped cream?”

“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” Jeongin said with a smile.

“Hey, a breakfast like that isn’t nearly as bad as it could be,” Hyunjin said. “Besides, as long as you just eat like that every once in awhile, you’ll be fine. Trust me, I know things.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Jeongin said.

Hyunjin then set to making breakfast, while Jeongin sat at the kitchen table and watched him and kept him company. He loved mornings like this.

If the two of them hadn’t been so lost in each other’s eyes, they would have noticed how the light coming through the blinds was somewhat dimmer than usual. It almost made the apartment look like it was early evening instead of early morning. And they might have given more attention to the sound of a car horn blaring on the street outside, followed by a crash. And if Hyunjin had had his phone turned on, he might have noticed the unusual amount of texts and calls coming through.

But they were, of course, too caught up in their own tiny bubble of happiness and love that they completely ignored what was happening outside it.

That is, until someone from the world outside decided to smash their way in.

Jeongin nearly jumped out of his skin when someone pounded on the front door. He glanced at Hyunjin, who stiffened, his eyes narrowed. They had never heard someone knock so loudly or aggressively on the door before. It almost sounded like someone was trying to force their way in.

“I’ll get it,” Hyunjin said, gesturing for Jeongin to stay seated. Then he went to the front door, where he peered through the peephole.

“Who is it?” Jeongin whispered, like whoever was on the other side of the door could hear him if he spoke any louder.

Hyunjin just frowned and unlocked the door. Jeongin tensed right as he opened it.

Instead of some serial killer or the police or someone equally terrifying,it was Seo Changbin of all people who walked in, looking wide-eyed and panicked.

“Oh, hi, Changbin,” Jeongin said, relaxing instantly. “What’s up?”

“I’ll tell you, but first you gotta promise not to get mad,” Changbin said.

Jeongin frowned and exchanged glances with Hyunjin, who just shrugged.

“Okay…” Jeongin looked back at Changbin and smiled.

“What’d you do?” Hyunjin crossed his arms and smirked a little. “Accidentally gave conflicting advice to another couple? Published a book with a typo? Sold your soul? Can’t be that bad, right?”

“I, uh.” Changbin reached to rub at the back of his neck, his eyes still wide. “I messed up.”

“With someone?” Hyunjin asked.

Jeongin gasped. “I didn’t know you were seeing someone! Who is it?”

“No, no, it’s not like that,” Changbin said. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, but then he glanced around the room and frowned. “You have all the blinds closed.”

Jeongin and Hyunjin exchanged glances again.

“Uh, yes,” Hyunjin said, frowning at Changbin. “We always have them closed early in the morning.”

“We were just about to open them up, actually!” Jeongin smiled.

“Oh, yeah, you might want to open them up and take a look…” Changbin trailed off.

Hyunjin’s frown deepened. “Okay…” With one last glance at Jeongin, he walked over to the window and opened the blinds. He squinted, preparing for that blast of early morning sunlight, but it never came. Instead, it seemed dark and dreary out, like the sky was overcast with rainclouds or something.

But the sky was…clear. Not a cloud in sight.

Hyunjin saw something else, though.

“Oh, there’s a car accident,” he said, looking down on the street. He looked over his shoulder at Changbin. “Did you cause that?”

“Uh, not directly,” Changbin said.

“Huh?” Hyunjin just frowned at him.

“You might want to, uh, look up?”

Hyunjin did look up. He frowned again. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s the point. The moon’s gone.”

“You sure it’s just not up right now?”

“No, I’m definitely sure the moon is not there,” Changbin said, taking a deep breath. “Because I literally just saw him like fifteen minutes ago. In my townhouse, specifically, holding hands with the sun, who decided it would be funny to blast me in the face with sunlight.”

“What?” Hyunjin just looked even more confused, while Jeongin stood up from where he was still sitting at the kitchen table.

“Yeah, uh.” Changbin rubbed the back of his neck again. “I _might_ have accidentally told the sun how to shift into a human. Who then turned right around and told the moon how to shift.”

“You what?!” Jeongin said.

“And then I lost them.” Changbin’s expression turned sheepish. 

“How do you _lose_ the sun and the moon?” Hyunjin demanded.

“You turn away for two seconds and turn back around and realize they’re nowhere in sight.” Changbin shrank down.

Hyunjin and Jeongin just gaped at him for several seconds. Changbin started fidgeting, looking somewhat like a scolded puppy who was trying to appear smaller than usual. Which was ironic, considering Changbin was already small.

“Soooo…yeah, the whole world is kinda freaking out right now because the sun is still _there_ but like…it’s a lot dimmer than usual?” Changbin continued to fidget. “Also the tides and everything are all messed up because the moon literally disappeared…and I seriously have no idea where the two of them are, so…”

Jeongin and Hyunjin looked at each other, their expressions unchanging from a moment earlier.

“Come to think of it, I wonder if Felix could find them.” Changbin thought to himself.

Hyunjin mouthed to Jeongin, _what the fuck?_ Jeongin just shook his head helplessly, mouthing back, _I have no idea._

“Are you guys mad?” Changbin asked. “You guys aren’t mad, right? Please don’t be mad at me. You promised, just saying! Also I made Jisung promise not to shift but that fucker did it anyways so it’s really not _my_ fault but—”

“Changbin,” Hyunjin interrupted. He gestured for Changbin to calm down. “Just breathe.”

Changbin sucked in a breath before saying in a rush, “I’m just freaking out okay? I literally just single-handedly sent the entire planet into pandemonium!”

“At least we know a general area of where they are,” Jeongin said, stepping forward. “They’re here in the city, right?”

Changbin exhaled. “Right.”

“And it’s not like they’ve split up,” Jeongin said. “Where Jisung is, Minho is. They’re a package deal.”

“That’s true,” Changbin admitted thoughtfully. “I’d be surprised if they let go of each other’s hands for even a split second. They’re very touch-starved so that makes them super clingy. Even clingier than you guys, if you can believe it!”

“Well, we can’t have that,” Hyunjin said, smiling at Jeongin and elbowing him playfully. Jeongin smiled back at him.

“Oh, no, don’t start that now…” Changbin whined.

“Did they say anything that might give a clue as to where they are?” Jeongin looked back at Changbin. “Like…did you talk about any specific place or activity before they ran off?”

“Uhhh…” Changbin thought for a moment. “I think I mentioned food and shopping and cats. And getting drunk because I…got drunk. And passed out. Which is actually how I lost them. I lied earlier just so you guys wouldn’t think poorly of me.”

Hyunjin snapped his fingers and pointed at Jeongin. “Cat café. There’s one that just opened up down the street.”

“I think I remember Jisung talking about that one day,” Jeongin said, snapping and pointing back at Hyunjin.

“Let’s go,” Hyunjin said, turning towards the door.

“You, uh, _might_ want to put on clothes first,” Changbin said, looking pointedly at how Hyunjin was wearing nothing but an old t-shirt and a pair of worn-out boxers.

“I think he looks cute,” Jeongin said with a fond smile.

Hyunjin smiled back at him, and Jeongin felt that warmth in his chest again.

“Stop,” Changbin said, rubbing his eyes. “Stop it with the _moments_. Just put on some _actual_ clothes. Without the looks of longing and love, please. Some of us are forever alone over here.”

“At least you have alcohol,” Hyunjin said, grinning as he started to walk away.

“Rude,” Changbin said. “Go change!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Hyunjin disappeared into Jeongin’s room, but not before sticking out his tongue at Changbin.

Changbin just shook his head at Jeongin, who was still smiling in Hyunjin’s direction, unable to keep himself from sighing dreamily.

“This is almost as insufferable as when you were hopelessly pining over each other,” Changbin muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Hey, technically you’re the one who made this all happen,” Jeongin said with a grin.

“And I expect you to pay me back,” Changbin said, smirking at him. “Just saying.”

“I thought you were a strong, independent man.” Jeongin gave him a teasing smirk.

“You can still be strong and independent but want a significant other, okay.” Changbin’s expression turned pouty.

“We’ll find you a boyfriend, Binnie,” Hyunjin said, walking back in while in the middle of pulling a clean shirt over his head. He gave both of them a gorgeous view of his toned stomach for a few solid seconds and Jeongin literally felt his brain short-circuit. “Or girlfriend. Whoever you want.”

“As much as I’d love that, we have other things to worry about right now,” Changbin said. “Let’s go track down the sun and the moon.”

“Right behind you!” Jeongin said happily, taking Hyunjin’s hand and skipping along behind Changbin.

Changbin just groaned and shook his head.

*

Somewhere else in the city, Jisung and Minho stood hand-in-hand in a milkshake bar, staring up at the menu in awe. They had long since stepped to the side, out of line, since they were taking their time reading through each and every option and discussing it with each other. It was difficult deciding what to order.

“I want to try them all,” Jisung said, his eyes wide as he read the options for milkshakes over and over again. “They all sound so good!”

“They’re all very good,” the girl on the other side of the counter said with a sigh. Jisung had probably said the exact same thing about twenty times now in the past ten minutes alone.

“Which one is your favorite?” Jisung asked her.

She sighed again, then said, “The classic flavors are always good. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry…but I personally like our signature shakes, like the mint chocolate chip one or the crushed M&M one. But they’re all good, so you’re bound to like whichever one you choose.”

“Crushed M&M…?” Jisung exchanged glances with Minho, who shrugged. Neither of them had any idea what an M&M was, much less a crushed one.

“Might as well try it!” Minho said, smiling.

“Okay,” Jisung said, smiling back.

“So, one crushed M&M shake?” the girl behind the counter asked, finally perking up now that it appeared like Jisung and Minho had come to a decision.

“Yes!” Jisung said confidently.

“Great choice,” the girl said. She rang up their total, and Jisung handed over a credit card. It was actually Changbin’s credit card, which Minho had swiped when Changbin had been in the middle of freaking out about the two of them shifting into humans. They had used it at every single place they had gone so far—at the cat café, at the grocery store, at all the different restaurants they came across (which was at least ten), and even at a liquor store! And now they were here, treating themselves to ice cream and milkshakes.

“Humans love their milkshakes and stores,” Jisung remarked as he and Minho sat down next to each other in a booth by the front windows.

“They do, they do,” Minho agreed, taking hold of the straw and sipping at the milkshake. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “For a good reason!”

Jisung sipped at the milkshake too, only to gasp. “That’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted!”

“We’re going to need at _least_ two more, for the road,” Minho decided.

“Agreed,” Jisung said, and the two of them went back to sucking down the milkshake within seconds. Then they both got up and bought two more milkshakes before coming back and sitting in the same arrangement.

Most people sat across the table from each other, and yet the two of them refused to let go of each other’s hands for even a second. So they sat next to each other, so close that their sides were pressed together. Jisung loved it because Minho’s temperature was so cool and refreshing. Minho loved it because Jisung was warm and cozy. Both of them loved it because for the first time in millions of years, they could finally touch.

Actually, the first time they had shifted and had seen each other in human form, Jisung had burst into tears. Minho had been shocked and confused and had immediately rushed over to Jisung, where he had taken Jisung’s face into his hands. That first kind of contact sent both of them into a state of shock for several moments, during which they just stared at each other, their minds momentarily blown while their hearts seemed to pound out of their chests.

Physical touch was a wild thing. Which was why they kept doing it.

After they had overcome their shock, Minho had asked Jisung why he had cried. And, of course, Jisung said, “Because you’re so beautiful. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

And, naturally, that made Minho burst into tears as well, though Jisung had then grinned and wiped at Minho’s tears, saying, “ _Way_ more beautiful than you usually are.”

Minho had gasped and smacked him for that. “Excuse me, I’ve always been beautiful. Unlike _you_ —I think this human form might be a step down, actually!”

And then they started bickering back and forth like nothing had changed.

Eventually their voices became too loud, and the door to the dark room they had been sitting in burst open, startling both of them. Jisung screamed at the top of his lungs and instinctively emitted a flash of golden sunlight, which illuminated their surroundings and the attacker, who was in the middle of raising a baseball bat above their head. To their total surprise, he and Minho both recognized them.

The attacker froze when the light hit them, momentarily blinded. That was when Jisung exclaimed, “Binnie!”

“Jisung?” The attacker—Changbin—blinked away his blindness and stared at the two of them huddled together. At first he just looked confused as he lowered the baseball bat he had raised over his head. Then his expression morphed into that of horror, shock, disbelief, annoyance, and eventually something that looked like a mixture of all four. It was perfectly embodied by the phrase, “You have _got_ to be shitting me,” which is exactly what Changbin said not even a second later.

What followed was a conversation (more like an argument paired with a mental breakdown) between the three of them, where Jisung excitedly explained his and Minho’s situation and Changbin started literally and figuratively pulling his hair out. He ended up saying a lot of things with more and more exasperation the longer Jisung talked, most of which were variations of the following:

_“I can’t believe you fucking did it!”_

_“You fucking promised you would think this through!”_

_“You’re going to kill me one day, you know that?”_

_“Why the fuck did you think this was a good idea?!”_

_*incoherent screaming*_

(this was also the point when Minho thought to steal Changbin’s credit card. He was always the master of perfect timing)

At some point Jisung and Minho managed to calm Changbin down, and Changbin decided that he needed a drink, despite it being barely eight o’clock in the morning.

So the three of them went to Changbin’s kitchen, where Jisung and Minho basically watched Changbin chug an entire bottle of whiskey, somehow without choking or coughing or sputtering.

Then they talked back and forth, yada yada yada, and eventually Changbin passed out, and Jisung and Minho took the opportunity to show themselves out of the townhouse. Which is how they ended up wandering the streets of the city, visiting every single store and restaurant that looked interesting. They probably would have gotten a lot more strange looks from other people had the other people not been too focused on the fact that the moon was gone and the sun was this strange dark red color. It was a very relaxing time.

Now, after finishing five total milkshakes in a row, the two of them were back to strolling along without a care in the world.

“I’ve always wanted to ride one of those!” Jisung said excitedly, pointing at the train system that he knew went to all different parts of the city. “Let’s go!”

“Who am I to say no?” Minho said with a smile. Jisung grinned back.

And so, hand-in-hand, they hopped onto the train, found a seat by the windows, and promptly rode all throughout the city, grinning from ear-to-ear. It was incredible to see the humans and the Earth from this level. Not to mention how they could experience so much more—the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the _touch_. It was nothing like watching from above. The two of them had never been happier.

They rode the train around and around—and even experimented with switching trains to see where that would take them—before the light grew even dimmer. Both of them knew what time it was, since they were both still connected to their bodies in the Celestial Sphere. It was nearing late afternoon, and they were beginning to realize that human bodies eventually grew tired. (they also grew hungry and thirsty and needed to empty themselves every now and then, which was a bit frustrating to keep up with)

The two of them decided to call it a day. What better way to end their first day on Earth than to stop by the apartment of a dear friend?

“This looks a lot better from down here,” Jisung remarked, swinging his and Minho’s interlaced hands as they approached the Lost Stars Bookstore. “It looks so small and pathetic from the Celestial Sphere.”

“Don’t let Woojin hear you say that, he might come down to smite you,” Minho said with a snort.

“Oh, I’d like to see him try!” Jisung said.

The two of them laughed, then went to the side door, where both of them had watched Jeongin hide a key under a rock numerous times before. Jeongin always left it there for whenever he shifted into a fox. It was there now, so they picked it up, unlocked the door, and waltzed up to the apartment.

They expected Jeongin and Hyunjin to be there, but instead the apartment was empty. There was even cold food still sitting out on the table and the counter in the kitchen. Based on Jisung’s experiences with human food so far, he knew that it would be as delicious as it looked. So he helped himself to it.

“I wonder if there’s a shower in here,” Minho said, glancing around.

Jisung gasped, his cheeks stuffed full of cold food. Minho giggled and poked at his cheeks, saying, “You’re adorable, you know that?”

Jisung blushed but said through a full mouth, “I know.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Minho said, leaning against the edge of the table. “We’ve held hands and touched, but we’ve never really experimented with all the other ways humans show affection.”

Jisung’s eyes went wide as he gulped down the food. “You mean like…kissing?”

“To start,” Minho said, his eyes sparkling.

“I don’t know how to kiss,” Jisung said.

Minho snorted. “And you think I do?”

“Well, you seem very confident.”

“Oh, that’s all a façade.”

“You know I love it, right?” Jisung smirked at him as he tilted his head to one side.

“Mm, I doubt you love it as much as I love your chubby cheeks.” Minho smirked as he leaned forward just a bit.

“They’re not that chubby!” Jisung pouted.

“You’re going to be the death of me if you keep looking so cute and kissable like that,” Minho said, continuing to lean forward until their foreheads were touching. Jisung was blushing now, but Minho just grinned as he looped his arms around Jisung’s waist and pulled him close, like he had seen humans do before.

“I love you,” Jisung said.

“I love you too,” Minho said.

Jisung’s eyes darted down to Minho’s lips and back up to his eyes again. There was a question in his gaze, paired with wide-eyed hope and yearning that Minho really couldn’t resist.

But as Minho moved to press their lips together like he had _also_ seen humans do, the front door opened.

The two of them jerked apart like they had been caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing as a shriek exploded from the doorway.

“ _They’ve been here the entire time?!_ ” exclaimed someone who sounded a lot like a stressed-out Changbin. “ _What the FUCK?!_ ”

“Changbinnie!” Jisung sang out, putting on a wide grin. “We were just talking shit about you!”

Changbin responded by giving this high-pitched shriek in the back of his throat and making a gesture that looked somewhat like he was trying to strangle Jisung from a distance.

“Wow, the gang’s all here!” Jisung said, grinning at everyone who was now coming in through the front door. He gasped when he saw Jeongin and shouted, “INNIE!” Then he gave Minho’s hand one last squeeze before finally releasing it. He ran over to Jeongin and threw his arms around him, all before Jeongin had barely stepped through the door.

Jeongin gave a yelp in surprise at the sudden golden blur that was hugging him. “What the—how did you even get _in_?” Despite his surprise, though, he hugged Jisung back. Jisung made this happy little noise and hugged Jeongin tighter.

“We used your key that you hide in a hole in the ground covered by a rock,” Minho said, shrugging as he walked over to them. He was a little jealous, seeing Jisung so eagerly hug someone else, so he solved it by going over to him and Jeongin and hugging the two of them.

“Aw, group hug!” Felix said, grinning and throwing his arms around the three of them.

“We’ve been looking for you all day,” Changbin scoffed.

“How long have you been here?” Hyunjin asked them.

“Oh, just a couple of minutes.” Jisung lifted his head to grin up at Hyunjin. “By the way, congratulations on finally getting your shit together and actually _getting_ together! It was frustrating watching the two of you dance around each other, so Minho and I are _over the moon_ —ha, get it?—that you guys are finally a thing.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Hyunjin frowned.

“Are you guys hungry?” Jeongin asked, starting to squirm uncomfortably from being the center of the group hug for too long.

“Doubt it,” Changbin scoffed. “They’ve been hitting up all the restaurants in town this entire time.”

“We could still eat!” Jisung said.

Jeongin smiled and gently detached himself from Felix and Jisung and Minho. He took a step back and ended up with his back pressed up against Hyunjin’s chest. “Okay, we’ll order food for everyone and chat a little.”

“Sounds good to us!” Jisung said, grinning. Minho nodded and smiled in agreement. “You’ll have to tell us all the other things we need to do on Earth!”

“We already have a list, but we could always use more!” Minho added.

“Yep, you guys _are_ our Earth experts!” Jisung said. “This is so exciting!”

Jeongin and Hyunjin just exchanged glances at that and sighed. This was going to be long couple of hours.

*

“So!” Jisung said in that bright voice of his. He grinned from ear-to-ear as he held hands with Minho tightly, their legs and shoulders pressed together. “Earth is _amazing_ , right?”

They were all sitting around the kitchen table, waiting for the delivery of the sandwiches that Hyunjin had ordered. The only one missing (besides Woojin and Chan, of course) was Seungmin, but Felix had done that intentionally, since he still hadn’t told Seungmin the truth about himself or the Celestial Sphere. Finding out by chasing the literal sun and moon across the city was _not_ the way Felix wanted that conversation to go. So, for now, it was just the six of them, with Jisung chattering and the others staring at him with a mixture of expressions, ranging from disgust (Changbin) to complete adoration (Minho).

“Yeah, it’s great,” Changbin deadpanned. “I see the two of you had _loads_ of fun today, huh? Loading up my credit card with charges from literally every restaurant and café you came across?”

That was actually how they had started to track down Jisung and Minho. Changbin had noticed, a bit belatedly, that his credit card was missing. He had been grumbling to himself as he pulled out his phone to check what the two of them were using it on when Hyunjin got the idea to use that to track them.

“We might be a few steps behind, but if we see where they’ve been, we might be able to guess where they’re going,” Hyunjin had said.

Changbin had pointed at him and said, “Smart.” Then he had checked the charges.

It had been a good plan, but it hadn’t worked in the long run. Because right after some milkshake bar,the charges ended. They had no idea where the two of them had gone after that. They had reached a dead end. 

Regardless, they still walked around the city, trying to think like Jisung and Minho to figure out where they might go next. It was all worthless in the end. When Jeongin started dozing off on his feet, Hyunjin decided to call it a day, and the four of them headed back to Jeongin’s apartment to get some dinner and figure out where to go from there.

The last place they _ever_ expected the sun and the moon to be was in that apartment.

Jeongin was relieved, though. Even though he was exhausted, he hadn’t been sure if he would be able to sleep knowing that Jisung and Minho were wandering around out there. Now not only could he plan on sleeping peacefully tonight, but he could finally breathe a little bit easier too.

Right now, Jisung was in the middle of a rant about all the wonderful things Earth had to offer (“The sights, the smells—the train smells a little bit like feet and urine, it’s great! Really adds to the experience!— and the _tastes_ —did you _know_ you had that many types of milkshakes? Oh, and did I mention the fact that you can hold hands in public and no one cares?”). Felix smiled and nodded along, while Jeongin and Hyunjin stared at them with a look of concern, and Changbin just glared at them.

“That’s great, Jisung,” Jeongin began when Jisung finally took a breath. “We’re really glad you had a good time.”

“More than a good time!” Jisung exclaimed, practically _glowing_ with happiness. “Minho and I can’t wait to try the beds or the showers or all the different ways you guys show physical affection!”

Hyunjin had been in the middle of sipping at his water and promptly choked when he heard that.

“Oh,” Jeongin said, wide-eyed. “Uh, yeah, it’s, um, really nice, but—”

“We tried to come up with a list of all the things we want to do here,” Jisung continued.

“Like going to a park and seeing all the squirrels and bunnies!” Minho piped up with a smile.

“Or looking for all the stray cats and dogs in the alleyways!” Jisung said.

“Or even _dumpster diving_ ,” Minho said. “Who knows what you’ll find in there!”

“Oooh, and then—”

Jeongin and Hyunjin gaped at them as they continued to fire off random activities they wanted to do on Earth. Changbin just shook his head, while Felix was struggling to keep a straight face.

“Very nice,” Changbin interrupted impatiently. “But when are you guys going to—”

There was a knock on the door, cutting Changbin off. Hyunjin jumped up and ran to get it. It was the sandwich guy, finally delivering. All conversation from before was promptly forgotten as everyone distracted themselves with the food. For Jeongin, it was a welcome distraction, because that meant Jisung and Minho stopped talking and that Jeongin was able to take a break for a moment before he figured out how to deal with them.

He ended up looking at Hyunjin, who looked back at him. Jeongin could tell just from one look that Hyunjin was thinking the same thing, and that was, _What the actual fuck?_ Jeongin shook his head, saying, _I have no fucking clue_. Hyunjin giggled at that, and Jeongin grinned.

“So, you two lovebirds,” Jisung piped up, making Jeongin and Hyunjin look at him. He gave them a shit-eating grin. “When’s the wedding?”

“Uh—” Jeongin said as Hyunjin turned bright red.

Minho suddenly gasped and grabbed Jisung’s hand, since the two of them had _finally_ let go of each other’s hands again while eating. “Let’s get married!”

“What?!” Jeongin, Hyunjin, and Felix exclaimed.

“They have those weddings in Las Vegas!” Jisung added, dropping his sandwich to grab both of Minho’s hands. “We could fly there and get married!”

“Hold on—” Jeongin tried to interrupt.

“And then also experience all the things Las Vegas has to offer!” Minho said, grinning. “Like swimming in those big fountains!”

“That’s not—” Felix started to say.

“GUYS!” Changbin exclaimed, his voice booming out of him and making everyone look at him. He stared at Jisung and Minho like they were insane. “No one’s going to Las Vegas, no one’s dumpster diving for cats, and no one is getting fucking married, okay?”

“We weren’t going to dumpster dive for the _cats—_ ” Minho retorted.

“You two are going to get your heads straight and figure out how to get _back_ to the Celestial Sphere and back to your proper places,” Changbin continued, shooting a glare at Minho. “Got it?”

Jisung and Minho stared at him for a few moments, which was the longest they had been quiet other than the few peaceful minutes when they had been eating. Then everything went to hell as Jisung and Minho immediately started to fire back at Changbin.

“Excuse me?” Minho demanded.

“We just got here and now you want to send us _back_?” Jisung’s voice was somewhat shrill.

“You’re the one who taught us how to shift!” Minho added.

“Yeah, kind of high and mighty coming from _you_ ,” Jisung scoffed. “Why do _you_ get to be human on Earth and we can’t?”

“Oh, no, I see how it is,” Minho said. “You’re just _jealous_!”

Jisung gasped, his eyes widening. “You don’t want us to be together!”

“That’s homophobic!” Minho exclaimed.

Changbin just groaned and dropped his face into his hands.

Jeongin decided to come to Changbin’s rescue. “He’s not saying that you guys can’t be together,” he said, making both Jisung and Minho look at him. “He’s trying to say that you guys are more important than all of us and that you have really important jobs to do. You being here has really caused a lot of problems for Earth.”

Jisung snorted and waved the thought aside. “There’s still sunlight and there’s still somewhat of a moon, they’re _fine_. Personally, I think humans are _selfish_ —they take me and Minho for granted! But do they ever care about what _we_ want? No! Spoiled, selfish humans!”

“They don’t care about what you want because they don’t know you _exist,_ ” Felix said, rubbing at his eyes. “To them you’re just a blazing ball of gas in the sky and a cold hunk of space rock. That’s it!”

“You just really need to think about what problems you might be causing to others,” Jeongin said.

It was like flipping a switch. Jisung immediately scowled, his face darkening. Minho’s expression went colder than they had seen from him in a long time. Just looking into his eyes made Hyunjin shiver.

“I see how it is,” Jisung said in a low voice, all the bright playfulness gone from his eyes. “So you guys can shift into humans and fall in love in a couple of days and be with whoever you want, but Minho and I—who have been together for millions upon millions of years— _can’t_. Wow. Some friends you are.”

“That’s not—” Jeongin started to say.

“Come on, Minho,” Jisung said, standing. Minho stood at the same time, their hands still intertwined. “These people apparently never really cared about us.”

“Jisung, Minho—” Felix tried to say, but Jisung and Minho ignored him.

“If you decide to have a heart for someone other than _yourselves_ , come talk to us,” Jisung said, dragging Minho by the hand down the hall, to Jeongin’s room. “Until then, leave us alone!” Then he slammed the door behind them.

For a moment, there was just stunned silence in the kitchen.

Then Jeongin said, “That’s my room though…”

“Well this situation just got infinitely more difficult,” Changbin said with an annoyed sigh.

“Honestly, Woojin’s room is right there! Why did they have to use my room?” Jeongin pouted and looked up at Hyunjin.

“It’s connected to the bathroom,” Hyunjin said.

“Your water bill is probably going to be super high for this month,” Felix said.

“What should we do?” Changbin asked. “Wait for them to cool down? That might literally be ages. But the planet is getting more and more chaotic the longer they stay here, so we need to find some way to get them to suck it up and go back.”

“Aren’t you the romance novelist who can’t resist a good love story?” Felix retorted. “They’re literally in a forbidden, star-crossed romance that would be right up your alley!”

“Yeah and being together is highly dangerous so they have to decide whether to stay together to to part for the greater good,” Hyunjin said, his eyes going wide. “It probably ends with a tearful goodbye and a promise that they’ll meet again but they never do. Oh, crap.” He sniffed and wiped at his eyes.

Changbin was unamused. “Since I’ve been reduced to the only single person here every time I interact with any of you, I’ve decided to throw romance out the window and to just be bitter.”

“I told you, I could totally talk to Seungmin about polyamory! I’m sure he’d be open to it!” Felix said, throwing his hands up into the air.

“Yeah, but that sounds like a pity thing,” Changbin said, making a face. “I’m good. I’ll be back to my lovely, cheerful self when this all blows over, don’t worry. But for now, let me bitch about it in peace.”

“I don’t think being bitchy is a good way to get them to be reasonable,” Hyunjin said.

“Well, fine, then send Jeongin in there to talk to them. He’s always delightful.”

“I can’t tell if that’s an insult or not.” Jeongin frowned.

“I think we should give them some space for the rest of the night and try again in the morning,” Felix said.

“If one of us wishes for them to be reasonable, you could technically grant it because it’s a need, right?” Changbin arched an eyebrow at him.

“Um. No.”

“Damn.”

“Let’s just try in the morning,” Felix said again, sighing. He stood up and pulled out his phone. “Seungmin’s wondering when I’m going to be home, so I’m going to head out. Let me know if anything major happens, okay?”

“We will,” Jeongin promised.

Felix gave them a smile before arching an eyebrow at Changbin. “You know, it’s kind of dark and scary out, especially without the moon…you sure you don’t want to walk me home?”

“If Seungmin kills me for being too close to his boyfriend, I’m coming back as a ghost to haunt you,” Changbin said, standing.

Felix grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll love you!”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Changbin grumbled. “Good luck, guys. I’m going to walk him home and then go drink until I pass out. Y’know, typical depressed, lonely artist style. Night.”

“Night?” Hyunjin said, frowning like he wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or not.

Felix gave a little wave to the others before he and Changbin left the apartment.

Once the door shut behind them, it was silent. Jeongin and Hyunjin just sat there at the table, still strewn with half-eaten sandwiches and crumpled napkins, neither of them really knowing what to do next. Jeongin felt a crushing weight on his shoulders and soul as he thought about what a massive task they had ahead of them. How was he of all people supposed to convince Jisung and Minho to think about the rest of the planet? To really consider the consequences of their actions? He felt nauseous just thinking about it, and also extremely guilty.

Hyunjin puffed out his cheeks before exhaling slowly. Then he glanced at Jeongin, who was almost on the verge of tears. “Hey,” Hyunjin said, sitting up a little bit, his eyebrows knitting in concern. “You okay?”

“Am I really that awful of a person that I care more about the planet than the struggles of two of my closest friends?” Jeongin’s eyes welled with tears as he looked at Hyunjin. “Have I really been so caught up in myself and my own relationship that I haven’t even stopped to consider what it must be like for them?”

“No, no,” Hyunjin said, reaching out for him. “No, Jeongin, you’re not an awful or selfish person—”

“But they literally are the reason the world can _survive_ and they don’t even get a say in what _they_ want, it’s always just what other people want…” Jeongin wiped at his eyes. The tears were slipping down his cheeks now. “And yet they’ve never asked for anything until now and we won’t even give it to them…”

Hyunjin didn’t say anything right away as he scooted his chair closer and wrapped his arms around Jeongin. Jeongin leaned into him and buried his face into Hyunjin’s chest. He started sobbing, but Hyunjin just held him tighter and ran a hand up and down his back soothingly.

“I think part of this is because you’re tired,” Hyunjin murmured. “It’s been a long, stressful day. It’s okay to feel like this, but let’s think more about it and discuss it in the morning, when we’re well-rested, yeah? How does that sound?”

Jeongin sniffed but nodded.

“Okay.” Hyunjin kissed the top of his head. “Want me to carry you?”

Jeongin nodded again, his face turning bright red at the offer.

Hyunjin smiled and effortlessly scooped him up. He carried him bridal-style to Woojin’s room, where he turned on the lamp on the nightstand before setting Jeongin down on the bed.

“Kinda glad we decided to put fresh sheets on this, huh?” Hyunjin joked, cracking a smile. It faded as he grew serious a moment later. He brushed Jeongin’s hair back from his forehead. “I’ll go clean up the kitchen, okay?”

Jeongin nodded a third time. Hyunjin smiled, kissed his forehead, and withdrew. Jeongin just laid there the entire time he was gone, too busy staring at the wall. He hated Woojin’s room. It felt so different without him here.

Fresh tears had welled up in Jeongin’s eyes when Hyunjin came back.

“Do you want to get ready for bed?” Hyunjin asked, crawling onto the bed beside him. “I think they locked the door to both your room and the bathroom, but…I might be able to ask them to at least give us our toothbrushes and facial cleansers.”

Jeongin shook his head. “I just want to sleep.”

“Okay.” Hyunjin snuggled up behind him, wrapping an arm around him and planting a kiss on the back of his neck. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jeongin whispered.

“Try to get some sleep, m’kay?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jeongin did try to get some sleep. It didn’t work. He was up half the night, wondering how in the world he could be so cruel to his oldest friends.

He ended up crying again. He had never hated himself more. 

*

“Should we have stormed out like that?” Minho asked, frowning from where they now stood hand-in-hand in Jeongin’s bedroom.

“Obviously,” Jisung said, snorting. “Just wait, they’ll come rushing in here and apologize in no time.”

They waited for a few moments, but when no knock and gushing apology came, Minho looked at Jisung with his eyebrows raised.

“Well, maybe give it a few more minutes,” Jisung said. “They’re obviously arguing about who gets to apologize first. Any minute now.”

Again, they waited. More minutes ticked by.

“Should we sit down?” Minho asked.

“Nah, nah, just give it like five more minutes. They were crying about how guilty they felt before they had to decide who to apologize first, so they were a few minutes behind my projected schedule. Just give it a little bit.”

Minho sighed but waited. And waited. Jisung kept listening for the sound footsteps approaching the door. It never came. He did hear the sound of the door slamming, though.

“That was the front door,” Minho said. “Someone left.”

“Well that still leaves Jeongin or Hyunjin,” Jisung said.

Minho shook his head. “Let’s sit down, Jisung.”

Jisung sighed and relented. He let Minho tug him to Jeongin’s bed, where they sat down on the edge of it. They sat there for a few moments, just staring straight ahead, their sides pressed together and their hands held tightly. Neither of them really knew what to do. So they just sat there. Staring.

Eventually, Jisung couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“So,” he said.

“So,” Minho said.

“Uh, since we’re alone now, maybe we could…y’know…”

Minho raised his eyebrows at him.

Jisung blushed and stared down at their interlaced hands. “Maybe…hug?”

“Of course,” Minho said without missing a beat.

Jisung exhaled in relief as he turned to face Minho, who leaned forward and wrapped his arms around him. He had to let go of his hand in order to do that, but Jisung was fine with it. He would much rather be able to hug Minho like this than hold his hand.

They hugged tightly for several moments, during which Jisung breathed in deeply and enjoyed the cool feeling of Minho’s body.

“Maybe we could lay down?” Minho asked after a moment.

“Oh, yeah, yeah.” Jisung nodded, and a moment later Minho was guiding him backwards onto the bed. The next thing Jisung knew, Minho was laying on top of him, still hugging him. Jisung let out a breath in surprise. He was not prepared for the sudden weight on top of him. It kind of felt like he was being slowly crushed to death.

“Is this okay?” Minho asked in concern, starting to let off.

Jisung tightened his arms around him to keep him where he was. “Yes, yes. It’s…it’s actually really nice.”

“Really?” Minho frowned.

“Yeah.” Jisung smiled up at him.

“You’re not just saying that, are you?”

“No, really, I don’t even know how to explain it. It just feels so…calming. Like my soul is finally at peace.”

Minho rolled his eyes at that, causing Jisung to add, “Laugh all you want, but you’ll understand what I mean! Let’s switch.”

Minho shrugged and rolled over, effortlessly pulling Jisung on top of him. Jisung watched his expressions carefully right as Minho blinked and said, “Oh.”

“See?”

“You’re right. It does feel nice. I don’t know why, but it does.”

“I accept your apology for ever doubting me.” Jisung’s expression turned smug as he rested his chin on Minho’s chest.

Minho snorted and tilted his head so he could stare right into Jisung’s eyes. They gazed at each other for several moments. Jisung’s smug expression eventually faded, replaced by a soft smile, his eyes full of nothing but love and pure adoration. He felt like he could gaze at Minho forever—which wasn’t so far off of what he had been doing in the past million years. But something about gazing into Minho’s sparkly eyes in this body was so much different. So much…better. Just like having someone lay on top of him, Jisung couldn’t explain why it felt so nice, but it did.

At one point, Minho murmured, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jisung replied.

Minho smiled to himself as he reached out to play with Jisung’s hair. Jisung hummed happily at the added touch.

“So, we’re currently stuck in here until one of them apologizes,” Minho said. “We won’t get to experience all the things we wanted to.”

“That’s okay,” Jisung said. “I’m just happy to be here with you.”

Minho’s smile widened, somehow making his eyes sparkle all the more. “Me too.”

Jisung smiled back before adding, “ _Although_ , I did lock the door to the bathroom too and I saw bubble bath in there so we can _totally_ do that.”

“Oooh, a bubble bath?”

“Should we do that now or save it for tomorrow?”

“Mm…” Minho thought to himself for a moment. “Tomorrow. I want to just lie like this for now.”

“Okay.” Jisung smiled. Then he scooted forward a little so their noses could touch. He gave Minho’s nose a little nuzzle, like he had seen some humans do in their softer moments.

Minho blinked a couple times in surprise. “What was that?”

“I don’t know, I just thought it seemed cute,” Jisung said.

“I liked it,” Minho said. “Do it again?”

Jisung grinned and nuzzled him again. This time Minho giggled, and Jisung’s heart soared at the sound.

“I have this urge to completely smash my face into yours,” Jisung said. “To press as close as possible. But that seems weird.”

“Do it anyways,” Minho said. “If it’s too uncomfortable, we’ll stop.”

Jisung really didn’t need to be told twice. He scooted forward a little bit more and pressed his forehead up against Minho’s and then pressed his nose against Minho’s cheekbone, right next to Minho’s pointy nose. Minho closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, shifting his arms so one wrapped around Jisung’s shoulder and the other cupped the back of his head, pressing him closer still. His fingers weaved themselves into Jisung’s hair.

Jisung didn’t understand why, but his eyes filled with tears. It was almost too much touching, and yet not enough at all. Mostly, he was just so overcome with love for Minho in that moment that it overwhelmed him and sent the tears spilling down his cheeks. He almost pulled away, thinking Minho wouldn’t want his own face to get all wet, but Minho kept holding him there.

“Why are you crying?” Minho murmured.

“It’s too much,” Jisung whispered. “I love you too much.”

“I love you just as much, if not more,” Minho said.

Jisung swallowed and asked, “Are we being selfish? I want nothing more than to just be here with you like this forever. But we can’t. We have to go back to the Sphere, Minho.”

“I know,” Minho said. “But let’s not think about that right now. Right now I just want to think about you and me. Just the two of us, like this. In the morning, we’ll think about something else. But for now…”

Jisung nodded, which turned into a nuzzle. Minho smiled. “In the morning we’ll think about something else,” Jisung said.

Minho hummed at that.

And so they held each other tightly, not knowing when they would ever be able to do so again.

*

The next three days were…rough, to say the least.

On the first day, Jeongin and Hyunjin woke up together, looked at each other for a few moments, and seemed to immediately understand what they had to do. Jeongin wasn’t happy about it, but it needed to be done. They needed to find some way to convince Jisung and Minho to go back to the Celestial Sphere. In Jeongin’s mind, it was essentially a betrayal. He knew that the two of them would never speak to him again or forgive him for this. But he had to do it anyways.

So he got up, went to the door to his room, and knocked on it.

“Morning, guys,” Jeongin called out softly. “Uh, Hyunjin’s going to make breakfast, if you want anything…”

Yes, he was bribing them with food. That was the only idea he had so far. He could tell that neither Jisung nor Minho could resist good food. Luckily, Hyunjin was a somewhat decent cook.

He heard some shifting on the other side of the door before Jisung’s voice asked suspiciously, “Are you going to bring it to us?”

“I was thinking you could come out and we could eat together!” Jeongin said in a hopeful voice.

Jisung scoffed and walked away from the door.

Jeongin sighed. “Come on, guys, please? Can we please talk about this?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Jisung snapped.

“Go away,” Minho added.

“Yeah, unless you have something that sounds exactly like _I’m sorry_ , we don’t care!”

Jeongin had no choice but to sigh in defeat and walk away.

“I’m guessing that didn’t go well,” Hyunjin said, his eyebrows knitted in concern as he stood next to the stove, frying pan in hand.

“Nope,” Jeongin said with another sigh. He put on a smile that didn’t really reach his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll try again. They’ll come out the moment they smell food.”

Hyunjin nodded. He was fully confident that Jeongin would be able to get to them. He had too much faith in Jeongin, sometimes. Jeongin didn’t have any confidence in himself at all. How could he when he had this much guilt weighing down on him?

He just sighed for a third time, sat down at the table, and put his head into his hands.

Changbin and Felix came over later that day. Neither of them stayed long. Felix couldn’t stay because he had only stopped to check in on his way to a movie with Seungmin. He had asked Seungmin to wait for him outside. Changbin couldn’t stay because he was busy, apparently.

“How are they doing?” Felix asked, anxiously glancing down the hallway at Jeongin’s closed door.

Jeongin sighed. “Same as before. Refusing to talk to us. Even refusing food.”

“They haven’t come out at all?”

“Nope.”

“Great,” Changbin muttered. He looked more exhausted than usual. There were dark rings under his eyes and he wouldn’t really meet anyone’s gaze. He especially avoided looking at Felix. Jeongin and Hyunjin were confused about that, but they decided not to press on it.

“Let me know if anything changes or if you need anything, okay?” Felix said. He gave Jeongin a tight hug before leaving to go to his movie with Seungmin.

Changbin watched him go, his eyes uncharacteristically sad.

“Are you okay, Bin?” Hyunjin asked.

“Huh?” Changbin looked at him, his eyebrows raised. “Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” He put on a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes at all. “I, uh, I actually have a deadline coming up soon, so I should probably go work on that. I’m just a call away, so just hit me up if they’re giving you more problems than usual, okay?”

“Will do,” Jeongin said.

Changbin gave them one last flash of a smile before quickly letting himself out of the apartment. Jeongin and Hyunjin exchanged glances, not knowing at all what was going on with him.

That night, Jeongin tried again to bribe Jisung and Minho with food, to no avail. He was about to leave when he heard the faucet turn on in the bathroom.

“Hold on,” he said. “What are you guys doing?”

“Nothing,” Jisung said.

“Are you taking a _bath_?”

“Nope.”

“Do _not_ overflow that tub! You’ll flood the whole bathroom!”

“Ooh, now I’m just tempted to do that more!”

“Jisung!”

“Chill, Foxy, we’re just running a bubblebath.”

“You’re using my bubblebath?!”

“Yep. How much do you use? Half the bottle? The whole bottle?”

“None of it!” Jeongin’s voice had turned shrill.

“Oops,” Minho said.

“What did you do?” Jeongin demanded.

“Used the whole bottle,” Minho said.

“MINHO!”

“We want lots of bubbles, okay!” Jisung said. “Calm down, you’ll be able to get more bubblebath. We, on the other hand, _won’t_. So we’re goin’ big before we have to go home, baby!”

Minho let out a whoop at that.

Jeongin had to walk away before he punched the wall or even shifted. It was difficult to get him riled up nowadays, and even more difficult still to get him so worked up that he shifted instantly, but Jisung and Minho were on a thin fucking ice.

“I’m going to kill them,” Jeongin said to Hyunjin, storming into the living room. “They’re using all my bubblebath Woojin bought me from Australia. It’s supposed to smell like the beach! It’s special and they just used the whole bottle on _one_ bath! One bath! Ugh!”

He collapsed onto the couch, immediately curling into Hyunjin’s side.

Hyunjin ran his hands through his hair. “It’s okay, we’ll fly all the way back to Australia and get you more if we need to. For now, just take deep breaths. I’ve got you.”

Jeongin just closed his eyes tightly and wrapped his arms around Hyunjin’s waist.

“We’ll come up with a strategy, I promise,” Hyunjin said. “They’re not going to stay in there forever. We’ll get them out, one way or another.”

Jeongin nodded and tried not to think about how angry they made him. Instead, he focused on how grateful he was that Hyunjin was here with him, because he sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to do this without him.

He still didn’t sleep that night, though. Too overcome with anger and guilt. He just hoped that the next day would be better.

The next day was _not_ better. It turned out that while Jeongin and Hyunjin were sleeping last night, Minho had snuck out of the room and into the kitchen, where he had raided the pantry _and_ the fridge. Jeongin was absolutely _livid_ when he and Hyunjin discovered the empty cabinets and fridge the next morning.

“They’re like fucking gremlins!” he exclaimed. “Dirty, thieving, fucking gremlins!”

Hyunjin shushed him and tried to calm him down, saying that they could always go to his apartment for food. Jeongin refused, saying that at least one of them had to stay here and hold down the apartment. Otherwise, who knew what Jisung and Minho would do to it. Probably find some way to burn it down or flood it or make the whole building collapse.

“We could always make Changbin or Felix stay here while we go do things,” Hyunjin said.

Jeongin shook his head. “They won’t do it. They’ve dumped this entire problem on us, don’t you see? I hate them. I hate them _and_ Jisung and Minho!” Then he screamed in frustration, making Hyunjin flinch.

To make things worse, Jeongin _still_ had to run the stupid bookstore that day. He scowled the entire time, probably scaring away some of the customers. He didn’t really care. All he cared about was the fact that Jisung and Minho were probably destroying his room and all his things right now like a pair of fucking monkeys. It enraged Jeongin to the point where he almost lost control _twice_ throughout his shift.

By the time he closed down the store, he stormed upstairs, flung open the front door, and slammed it behind him hard enough to make the whole building tremble. Hyunjin looked up in surprise from where he was sitting at the kitchen table. Jeongin ignored him and stormed down the hall to his room. There, he pounded on the door and said, “Jisung! Minho! If you don’t get out of here, I swear to the Celestial Sphere that I’m going to bust down this door and drag you out myself!”

“Calm down, Jeongin,” was Jisung’s reply.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Jeongin yelled.

Hyunjin intervened at that point and had to literally drag Jeongin away from the door before he tried to do something and accidentally hurt himself. He ended up depositing Jeongin in Woojin’s room, where Jeongin promptly shifted into a fox and curled up under the sheets. He refused to come out for the rest of the day no matter how much Hyunjin tried to coax him out.

The third day, Jeongin didn’t get out of bed. It was now up to Hyunjin to figure things out.

He decided to call Felix, since Changbin’s phone just kept going to voicemail every time Hyunjin tried to call him.

“Hey!” Felix said brightly. “Guess what!”

Hyunjin sighed but said in the most cheerful voice he could muster, “What?”

“I ended up telling Seungmin the truth last night. I told him about me and Jeongin and Woojin and the Celestial Sphere and even the situation with Jisung and Minho right now. He was completely understanding!”

Hyunjin blinked in surprise. “That’s great, Lix!”

“Yeah!” Felix laughed, sounding so happy in that moment that Hyunjin’s heart ached a little bit. “He only got worked up over one thing. Bet you’ll never guess what it was.”

“I dunno know, what was it?”

“He was more annoyed over the fact that _you_ knew all of this and didn’t tell him than anything.”

Felix said it so nonchalantly, but it made Hyunjin wince.

“It must’ve slipped my mind,” Hyunjin said with a sigh. “Besides, I didn’t want to steal your thunder and make things weird between the two of you.”

“It’s okay,” Felix said. “I understand. And he’s not mad at you, don’t worry. He’s fine with everything. He even figured out a way you could compromise with Jisung and Minho!”

That made Hyunjin perk up a little. “Really? How?”

Felix just giggled.

About an hour later, Hyunjin opened the door for Felix and Seungmin. Felix grinned at him, practically bouncing with excitement, while Seungmin deliberately poked Hyunjin in the side.

“You know, it wouldn’t _kill you_ to keep me in the loop sometimes!” Seungmin said.

“I know, I know,” Hyunjin said, smacking Seungmin’s hand away. “I did kind of try to tell you at one point. Remember when I first told you about Baby and Jeongin? I think you called me crazy and told me to see a therapist.”

“How _else_ would you expect me, the only sane one in this group, to react?” Seungmin spread his hands. “Thinking that your pet fox and the cute boy you saw at the bookstore are the same sounds pretty crazy, okay!”

“Fair,” Hyunjin said.

Felix glanced around, frowning. “Where’s Changbin? I thought you said he was coming.”

“No, I said I’d try to get him to come,” Hyunjin said. “He hasn’t been answering his phone lately. He must be really in the writer’s zone.”

Felix and Seungmin exchanged glances, making Hyunjin frown.

“What?” he asked. “Do you guys know something I don’t?”

“Infuriating, isn’t it?” Seungmin smirked at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin stuck his tongue out at him. A moment later, though, he grew serious. “Seriously though, is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s just having a bit of writer’s block,” Felix said. “When he does that, he tends to lock himself in his house for days on end and refuse to talk to anyone until he figures out a way to get through it.”

“That sounds…bad.” Hyunjin’s eyebrows knit in concern.

“Don’t worry, we’re checking in on him,” Seungmin said. Though, the way he and Felix glanced at each other made Hyunjin think there was more to the story.

Unfortunately, they had more pressing matters, so Hyunjin pushed it to the back of his mind for now.

“Where’s Innie?” Felix asked as they walked through the apartment, towards Jeongin’s room.

“He kind of exploded at Jisung and Minho and has been in a mood ever since,” Hyunjin said with a sigh. “He even shifted back into a fox, so…”

“Oh, that’s bad,” Felix said. “On the bright side, though, Minnie finally gets to see him shift in real time! In case he ever had any doubts.” He smiled.

Hyunjin gave a flash of a smile before knocking on the door to Woojin’s room. “Hey, Innie? Felix and Seungmin are here. They have an idea on how to get to Jisung and Minho.”

Seungmin peeked over Hyunjin’s shoulder at the dark room. He just barely saw a tiny, dark shape move on the bed and jump off of it before there was a flash of light. Suddenly Jeongin was standing in the doorway, his hair all tousled, a pouty look on his face.

“Good luck,” Jeongin said miserably. “They won’t listen to me. Did you hear what they did, Felix?”

“No, what did they do?” Felix asked.

“They used that bubblebath that Woojin got me from Australia _and_ took all of the food.”

“Even the stuff from the fridge?” Felix looked appalled.

“Yes!” Jeongin said.

“Ew,” Seungmin said, making a face. “That stuff is probably all spoiled now.”

“And it’s in my room!” Jeongin complained, rubbing at his eyes. “Literally I’d be _fine_ if they wanted to waste their time away on Earth but they had to take over _my room_ and my bathroom and forced me into Woojin’s room and I _hate_ Woojin’s room because it has so many memories and—”

“It’s okay, Jeongin, it’s okay,” Hyunjin said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Felix stepped forward and hugged Jeongin, letting Jeongin rest his chin on his shoulder as he struggled to compose himself. Even Seungmin was gesturing for Jeongin to take a breath.

“I have a plan,” Seungmin said. “Don’t stress yourself out, Jeongin. You might take off like ten years of your life if you keep stressing yourself out like this.”

That just made Jeongin whine and squeeze his eyes shut.

“He only has like fifteen years left on Earth,” Hyunjin hissed at Seungmin.

“Oh,” Seungmin said as Jeongin looked like he was about to burst into tears. “Well, that’s just if you keep freaking out like this! You still have time left! You’re not going to die in five years, I swear!” Now both Felix and Hyunjin were giving him warning looks, so Seungmin sighed and said, “You know what, I’m just going to stop talking.”

“Good idea,” Hyunjin said.

“Go talk to them instead,” Felix said, pointing down the hall at Jeongin’s room.

Seungmin nodded. “On it.”

He walked down the hall and approached the closed door slowly. Felix, Jeongin, and Hyunjin watched him curiously as Seungmin took a deep breath and knocked politely on the door.

“Hey, Jisung, Minho?” Seungmin said. “You don’t know me, and I don’t really know you, but my name’s Kim Seungmin. I’m Felix’s boyfriend. I’ve been informed that you two are the sun and the moon and that you’re in the middle of a dilemma.”

“You sound like a pretentious schoolboy talking to the cool kids,” Hyunjin scoffed.

Seungmin flipped him off without looking at him. A moment later, footsteps approached the other side of the door.

“No offense, but you sound like a pretentious piece of shit,” Jisung’s voice said.

Hyunjin snorted at that, but Seungmin wasn’t fazed.

“I’m just the diplomat,” Seungmin said. “So, from what I’ve heard, the two of you just want to experience life on Earth together, is that right?”

“Yeah,” Jisung mumbled.

“Good. And you’re currently blockading yourselves in Jeongin’s room because…?”

“Because Jeongin and everyone else doesn’t care about what we want, only about what _they_ want.”

“I see. And you think that holing up in Jeongin’s room and using his bubblebath and stealing his food is an appropriate response?”

There was a beat before Jisung admitted, “I mean, _no_ , but they forced my hand!”

“How so?” Seungmin asked.

“Well, they told me and Minho that we couldn’t get married and that we had to go back to the Celestial Sphere and play sun and moon again! They told us to _think about other people_. Did they think about us or what we wanted? No!”

“So your response is to hide in Jeongin’s room and use his bubblebath and eat his food.”

“It forces him to think about us!”

“It does, but not always in the positive way you want,” Seungmin said. “This little feud you’re all caught in has really just brought out the worst sides of yourselves. Weren’t you and Jeongin friends before this, Jisung?”

“Yes,” Jisung said shortly.

“And you helped Jeongin adjust to life on Earth when he was just a young, lost fox, didn’t you?”

There was a beat of silence before Jisung admitted, “Yes.”

“And Minho, you helped Jeongin find Woojin, didn’t you?” Seungmin continued.

“Yes,” Minho said.

“So then you’ll agree that the two of you care for Jeongin very much and that Jeongin cares for the two of you very much as well?”

“Yeah,” Jisung said.

“We do,” Minho said.

“Jeongin?” Seungmin turned to look at him.

Jeongin swallowed but nodded. “I do.”

“So if you’re all such good friends then why would you willingly go out of your way to hurt each other like this? Aren’t you aware that this is toxic behavior from all of you and that you might seriously damage your friendship, possibly even end it?”

There was another beat of silence before all three of them mumbled, “Yeah…”

“I think everyone needs to apologize, then,” Seungmin said. “And then once you apologize, I’ll tell you my solution for all of you. Fair enough?”

Someone on the other side of the door sighed, but then Jisung said, “Yeah, fine.”

“I'm sorry, Jisung and Minho,” Jeongin said. “We never meant it like you two couldn’t be together. We just wanted to show you what it was doing to the rest of the planet and wanted you to act responsibly.”

A beat of silence passed before the door to Jeongin’s room opened. Jisung and Minho stood there, with Jisung pouting as he held Minho’s hand.

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I guess I kind of overreacted. I’m sorry we ate all your food and holed up in your room and used all your bubblebath. I swear we didn’t do anything bad to your room. We’re not _that_ terrible of people, you know.”

Minho nodded. “I’m sorry too.”

“Good,” Seungmin said, smiling. “Everybody better?”

“Are you a therapist or something?” Jisung asked.

“Nope, I’m going to be a lawyer,” Seungmin said proudly.

“You’ll make a good lawyer,” Minho said.

“Thank you.” Seungmin beamed, and Minho smiled back. “I’m basically the only reasonable adult here.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Hyunjin said with a shrug.

“So, what’s your solution?” Jisung narrowed his eyes at Seungmin suspiciously.

“Well, I know I said that I would tell you after you apologize, but I think we’ll all be happier once we clean up and get Jeongin’s room back in order,” Seungmin said. “Then we can get some dinner and talk about it while we eat. Sound good?”

Jisung and Minho nodded.

“Good. Let’s get started, then.”

*

Later on, after they had all done what Seungmin had asked, and after Jisung had hugged Jeongin tightly and apologized again (and had caused both of them to burst into tears, which prompted a group hug from Minho and Felix), they were trying to decide on what food to order.

“You know what? No.” Hyunjin put his phone away and made them all look at him in surprise. “No more sitting in the apartment all day. We’re going out for dinner. My treat.”

“I’ll pay for Felix and me,” Seungmin said.

“I would offer to pay for Minho and I but Changbin made me give his credit card back, so…” Jisung grinned sheepishly.

“We’ll pay for you,” Hyunjin said.

“Thank you,” Jisung said. “This is our last day of being moochers, we swear!”

“Where is Changbin, anyways?” Minho asked, frowning.

“He’s at home writing some epic novel.” Felix smiled.

“Oh,” Jisung said. “It it about us?”

Felix snorted. “Don’t flatter yourselves.”

They ended up going to a sushi place and having a lovely time. Seungmin made sure to talk about something other than the elephant in the room, and they ended up just enjoying each other’s company and conversation. It was the kind of conversation where they somehow managed to talk about nothing at all, which Felix and Jisung really excelled at. They made all the others laugh so hard that Jeongin almost sprayed soda out of his nose.

Near the end of dinner, though, Jisung gave Seungmin a pointed look, making Seungmin sigh and say, “Alright, alright, I guess I’ve held off from my solution long enough.”

“Yes, yes you have,” Jisung said, with Minho nodding in agreement.

Seungmin smiled as Jeongin and Hyunjin perked up, and Felix just smirked. He knew everything already, of course. He and Seungmin had this new rule where they agreed to tell each other everything important. Especially stuff that had to do with the Celestial Sphere.

“So, you want to stay on Earth as humans,” Seungmin said to Jisung and Minho. “But for the sake of the planet, that’s just not possible. We need you up in the Celestial Sphere.”

Jisung’s shoulders slumped, but Minho kept staring at Seungmin intently, as if daring him to continue.

“You’ll have to go back to the Celestial Sphere,” Seungmin said. “But not forever.”

Jisung looked up at that.

Seungmin smirked and continued, “Every year or so there’s an eclipse in different parts of the world. Humans are used to these and don’t freak out when they come. So, you can come to Earth during these eclipses and be together at least once a year without freaking people out. I know that’s not much, but it’s better than never being able to unite as humans again, right?”

Jisung and Minho exchanged glances. They seemed to have an entire conversation just by looking at each other, in the way that people who had been together for millions of years do. Jeongin and Hyunjin held their breath, though Hyunjin’s hand had found Jeongin’s under the table. They held onto each other tightly, hoping that Seungmin’s solution was good enough.

“Seungmin,” Jisung said, looking back at him. Seungmin raised his eyebrows. Jisung smirked before saying, “We accept.”

Jeongin breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against Hyunjin, who laughed.

“Oh, don’t look so relieved!” Jisung said to Jeongin.

“I’m just glad I get my room back,” Jeongin said.

Seungmin and Felix laughed at that.

“So, you’ll agree to go back to the Celestial Sphere?” Felix asked Jisung and Minho.

Minho nodded.

“But not until tomorrow morning,” Jisung said, pointing a stern finger at Felix.

“That’s fair,” Felix said. “How about a toast and we go back to our apartment and we introduce you and Minho to video games, hmm?” He smirked.

Jisung held up his glass. “Sounds fun!”

Everyone else then lifted their glasses and toasted to a solution and then toasted to Seungmin—who blushed profusely, even more when Felix kissed him on the cheek—and then Jisung toasted to Minho and Minho toasted to Jisung and then they kissed on the lips and made everyone else groan.

Jeongin exchanged glances with Hyunjin, who smiled and bumped their shoulders together.

They did go back to Seungmin and Felix’s apartment, and they did introduce Jisung and Minho to Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros Brawl and a whole bunch of other games. Somehow Minho got the hang of it much faster than everyone else and ended up beating everyone, much to Seungmin’s total shock and Felix and Hyunjin’s rage (and yes the competitiveness did jump out again when the two of them started playing).

Jisung and Minho went back with Hyunjin and Jeongin, though this time, they took Woojin’s room. Jeongin had never been so happy to be back in his bed in his life.

Hyunjin giggled as he crawled into bed next to him. He planted a kiss on Jeongin’s forehead, then his nose, then both of his cheeks, and finally his lips.

“Goodnight,” Hyunjin murmured, still grinning down at him. “I love you.”

“Goodnight,” Jeongin said, smiling up at him. “I love you too. Sorry for being such a pain in the ass lately.”

“Nah, you’re _my_ pain in the ass,” Hyunjin said, only for Jeongin to give him a funny look. “That came out wrong, but you know what I mean!”

“You’re a sap,” Jeongin said.

“I’m _your_ sap.”

“Stop it,” Jeongin whined, pushing Hyunjin’s face away. “Let’s go to sleep.”

“Okey dokey.” Hyunjin grinned and hugged Jeongin to his chest. He kissed Jeongin one last time on the forehead before flicking off the lamp.

For the first time in the past few days, Jeongin slept well.

*

Jisung and Minho went back up to the Celestial Sphere the following morning, as promised. Everyone was there except for Changbin, who still wasn’t answering his phone.

“We might need to go check on him after this to make sure he’s still alive,” Hyunjin said with a smirk.

“Oh, he is,” Felix said.

“I’m kinda surprised he’d want to miss this, like, I thought he would be glad to see us gone!” Jisung said, grinning as he clung tightly to Minho’s hand.

“Yeah, well, this is what happens when you cut yourself off from everybody,” Hyunjin said, shrugging.

Jeongin then hugged Jisung and Minho one last time, and of course Felix had to join in, which then drew in Seungmin and Hyunjin as well.

“I’m sorry you can’t be on Earth all the time like we can,” Jeongin told Jisung as they all finally pulled away.

“Nah, don’t be,” Jisung said, booping Jeongin on the nose and smiling. “Minho and I have matured and gotten past such petty things. We’re just glad we got these few days. It’s more we could have asked for.”

“Of course, keep in touch,” Felix said. “We’ll always be here to stare back up at you for days on end!”

“Please don’t,” Hyunjin said, looking concerned. “You’ll go blind.”

“Yeah, your mortal eyes can’t handle my brilliance,” Jisung said.

Minho shoved him and laughed when he stumbled. “See, in the Celestial Sphere, I can’t _do that_. Such a pity.”

“Oh, yeah, such a pity that I can’t do _this—_ ” Jisung jabbed his finger in Minho’s side. Now _he_ laughed as Minho shrieked and jumped so violently that he almost fell over.

“Ah, love,” Felix said as the two of them started bickering and play-fighting.

Eventually, Jisung and Minho got over their little spat and embraced one last time. Then they waved goodbye to the others, took each other’s hands, and started glowing brightly. Jeongin was reminded of Woojin and Chan’s departure as Jisung and Minho kept glowing brighter and brighter until they were too much to look at, and the four of them had to shield their eyes and turn away. When the light subsided, though, and they turned back, Jisung and Minho were gone. The clouds moved away from the sun overhead, revealing a bright, cheery sun that was back in its proper place once again. Not too far off was the moon, always observing the sun from a distance.

As Jeongin and Hyunjin looked up at the sky, their hands found each other. They interlaced their fingers and smiled. In a couple of years, they would be there too.

There was a sniffle, and both of them looked to see Felix patting Seungmin’s back as Seungmin wiped away tears.

“It’s just so…” Seungmin sniffed again and wiped at his eyes.

“Aw, Minnie.” Hyunjin grinned.

“I hope they’re happy,” Seungmin said, his lip trembling. “They deserve it.”

“Trust me,” Jeongin said, looking up again and smiling at the sun. “They are.”

*

Things went back to normal after that, though it _was_ amusing seeing baffled news headlines about the strange phenomenon that had occurred over the past few days. Hyunjin joked about making a collage out of all the headlines and putting it in a scrapbook, and Jeongin just rolled his eyes.

One night, though, Hyunjin said out of nowhere, “SHIT!”

“What?” Jeongin jumped and looked up in concern.

“I didn’t take any photos while Jisung and Minho were here!” Hyunjin looked at Jeongin with wide eyes. “That would have been _perfect_ for my portfolios! Can you imagine the concept I could have done? _The embodiment of the sun and moon_ —oh my _god_ that would have been so artistic and poetic! God!” He groaned and threw himself dramatically across the couch.

Jeongin snorted. “Well, you can always wait for the next eclipse.”

Hyunjin just whined at that.

They carried on life as usual.

That is, until a few weeks later, when Changbin showed up again.

“We were seriously starting to think you had died or something!” Jeongin exclaimed when he saw him, wasting no time in jumping up and hugging him. “We were worried about you!”

“Worried about me?” Changbin gave a half smile at that as he hugged Jeongin back. “Don’t say that, it might get to my head.”

Jeongin stuck out his tongue before squeezing him one last time and pulling away. “Want some tea? I’ll make you tea!” He bounced off.

Changbin smiled after him, though Hyunjin couldn’t help frowning at him. When Changbin noticed him staring, he looked at him and raised his eyebrows at him. “What? Something on my face?”

“No, no.” Hyunjin smiled to reassure him. “I’m just glad to see you, that’s all. You looked kind of…out of it the last time we saw you.”

Changbin shrugged. “I had a lot on my mind. Are the gremlins finally gone?” He leaned to the side so he could peer down the hallway at Jeongin’s room.

“They have been for awhile now,” Hyunjin said. “Haven’t you been outside?”

“Oh, not really.” Changbin shrugged. “I’ve been working.”

“Working? On what?”

At this, Changbin smiled. A real, true smile. “Jeongin?” he called out.

“Yes!” Jeongin darted over, still grinning from ear-to-ear after successfully putting the kettle on the stove without setting anything on fire.

“This is for you both.” Changbin pulled something out of the backpack he had brought. He handed it to them.

It was a thin black binder, which wasn’t the remarkable part. The remarkable part was on the inside, where there was a thick ream of paper. The first page had a single title at the top and Changbin’s name at the bottom. Hyunjin read the title out loud for Jeongin.

“Foxbody.”

“You like it?” Changbin smiled. “It’s your story.”

Jeongin looked up at him with wide eyes and with his mouth hanging open. Hyunjin had a little bit more of a reaction.

“You wrote our story?” Hyunjin asked, his voice cracking.

“Yeah, I changed your names, too,” Changbin said. “And I had a few artistic liberties—changing some tiny aspects of your personality here and there—but overall it’s completely unchanged. I haven’t talked to my agent or my publisher about it yet, but I’d like to get it published. I wanted your permission first, though.”

“Can we read it?” Jeongin asked, blinking up at Changbin.

“Please do!” Changbin said. “I want you to read it. That’s your copy. I’ll even sign it for you so you can auction it off in a few years when this thing blows up.” He smirked.

Jeongin didn’t know what to say. He just kept staring down at the book, and then looking up at Changbin as if he was going to say something, then looking back down at the book again.

Hyunjin just grinned and hugged Changbin, which caught him off-guard for a moment before he relaxed and hugged Hyunjin back.

“I’ll read it to him,” Hyunjin said. “And I’m personally fine with you publishing it. I think Jeongin’s a bit overwhelmed right now, but he’ll be okay in a little bit. I’m sure he’ll love it too.”

Changbin smiled. “Thanks, Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin gave him one last squeeze before releasing him.

“I can’t believe you wrote this in a few weeks,” Jeongin said, flipping through the pages. “This is a lot!”

“I’m a writer. This is what I do.” Changbin’s smile turned somewhat cocky. “I also didn’t eat or sleep or shower during that so…”

Hyunjin and Jeongin both took a step back at the same time.

Changbin rolled his eyes. “Well not _now_. I took a shower before coming here, obviously!”

Jeongin giggled at that.

“Well, since you’re here, do you want anything to eat? We restocked after Jisung and Minho ate everything,” Hyunjin said, putting an arm around Changbin’s shoulders and gesturing towards the kitchen.

“Yeah, sure, update me on everything that’s happened since I’ve been dead to the world,” Changbin said, letting Hyunjin lead him into the kitchen.

“ _Well—_ ” Jeongin said, sucking in a deep breath. He launched into a story, and Changbin just grinned and nodded along, listening to every word.

The three of them talked and laughed and drank tea and ate snacks, like nothing had changed at all.

And when Changbin finally left, promising to keep better in touch, Jeongin couldn’t help thinking that he looked a little bit happier. It put a smile on his own face as he leaned into Hyunjin and waved goodbye.

*

The days and weeks continued to pass. Jeongin was getting the hang of the business aspects of the bookstore now. Felix was still working with him too, though he was looking at other jobs, and possibly taking a couple of classes at the same university that Seungmin and Hyunjin attended, just to have something to do.

“I’ve always wanted to try dance,” Felix said. “And maybe do some dance performances, or theatre productions.” He shrugged. “I did those once back when I was going through the school system during my first few years on Earth. They were fun.”

“You should look into that, then.” Jeongin smiled.

Felix smiled back. “I will. Maybe you should too. We could all go to university together!”

Jeongin laughed at that. His first instinct was to decline, but things were changing, including his mindset. So he shrugged and said, “We could! I’ll look into it with Hyunjin.”

One night, he and Hyunjin took a look at Hyunjin’s schedule for the upcoming fall semester, since summer was coming to an end in just a few weeks. Hyunjin was already looking into what books and supplies he would need, though he was also looking to change up his schedule a bit.

“I’m going to finally do it,” he said. “I’m gonna take a photography class!”

“Is there a modeling class?” Jeongin asked, peeking over Hyunjin’s shoulder at the screen of his laptop. “I could totally take that.”

Hyunjin snorted. “I don’t think there is. There’s fashion design, though. Wanna design clothes and show it off on other models on the runway?”

Jeongin made a face. “Doesn’t seem like my thing. I suppose I could always take some business classes.”

“Do you _want_ to take business classes, though?”

Jeongin shrugged. “Maybe?”

“Jeongin.” Hyunjin turned to look at him. “Is this another thing you think you _should_ do instead of something that you really want to do?”

Jeongin blinked at him, momentarily caught off-guard. Eventually he blurted, “I don’t _really_ want to. I want to explore other things.”

“Alright.” Hyunjin smiled at him, then turned back to his laptop, where he brought up the course catalogue. “What do you think you might be interested in, then? Just shout out anything that looks interesting.”

Jeongin snorted and gave him a look. “Hyunjin.”

“Hmm?”

“I _still_ can’t read.”

“Oh.” Hyunjin looked up and laughed. “Why do I keep forgetting that? Oh my god. We really need to get on that. You seriously can’t go to college if you don’t know how to read. Don’t be Jared, nineteen.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Hyunjin waved the thought away, still grinning to himself. “I’ll just read it to you, and then we can start teaching you how to read tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” Jeongin snorted.

“I thought Changbin was supposed to teach you.” Hyunjin shook his head.

“He got a little distracted.”

“Uh huh. So! We have philosophy, nursing, education…”

They went through all of the possible classes and degrees Jeongin could look into. Jeongin was most curious about the music and education tracks.

“Oh, boy, reading music is a whole other thing,” Hyunjin said with a laugh. “That would be cool, though! You could teach astronomy! Or, y’know, mythology, since that deals with astronomy too sometimes.”

Jeongin giggled at that.

They fell asleep that night on the couch, after scrolling through all of the requirements for college and realizing it would be incredibly difficult to enroll Jeongin within just a few weeks. Hyunjin still wanted to give Jeongin _something_ to look forward to, so he said that they could look into taking music lessons at a music store or from local teachers within the city instead. That was good enough for Jeongin, and they called it a night.

The beginning of the semester came and went. Hyunjin now went to class during the day and came to the store afterwards to keep Jeongin company until it was time to close. Felix went part-time so he could go to class and work when he could, so most of the time it was just Jeongin in the store. They were getting better business these days, and Jeongin was more comfortable with talking with the customers now. It wasn’t as lonely as it could have been. He always looked forward to Hyunjin coming in to help, though.

They switched off where they spent their nights. Some nights it was Hyunjin’s apartment, some nights it was Jeongin’s. Jeongin, of course, liked both. Both apartment had good memories in them. However, Hyunjin brought up the issue of finances. He mentioned how it was getting to be a bit costly for him to live on his own, since he wasn’t making money anymore _and_ was still trying to go to college. He was still getting help from his parents, and he had money saved up, so he wasn’t completely broke just yet, but it was only a matter of time. Since he and Jeongin were practically living together anyways, he suggested that they move in together.

“Into your apartment, I mean,” Hyunjin said, nervously watching Jeongin for his reaction.

Jeongin blinked and thought for a moment. He was well-off financially, especially with the bookstore and from all the money Woojin had left for him. Hyunjin was still looking for another job, which, combined with school, would seriously cut into their time spent together. Jeongin didn’t want to go a single day without seeing him, and he wanted to be there for Hyunjin whenever Hyunjin felt overly stressed or tired.

It was a no-brainer, really.

“Okay,” he said, smiling. “Let’s move into my apartment together, then.”

Hyunjin breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him.

It took them an entire weekend, but, with the help of Changbin and Felix and Seungmin, they managed to sell some of Hyunjin’s furniture and move it all into Jeongin’s apartment. After it was all done, the five of them collapsed onto the couches in their living room with a couple of pizzas and hot wings and soda and enjoyed each other’s company for the rest of the night.

Even though things were changing, Jeongin was happy. He wasn’t lonely anymore. He had Hyunjin and a group of friends who loved him dearly, whom he loved just as much in return. He made sure to talk to Jisung and Minho any chance he could, and sometimes they sent him messages from Woojin and Chan. Jeongin made sure to ask Woojin about the store, and if he could sell it at some point, and Woojin said that he wouldn’t be offended if Jeongin wanted to sell it and move on with his life.

“It’s your life now, not mine,” Woojin had said through Minho. “You can do whatever you want and I won’t be hurt or disappointed. Truly. I just want you to be happy.”

Jeongin smiled and told Minho to tell Woojin that he missed him and that he loved him.

The fall semester was nearing its end when Hyunjin came running into the store, grinning excitedly and waving his phone around.

“Innie, Innie, check this out!” Hyunjin said, shoving his phone in Jeongin’s face.

Jeongin blinked in surprise and took the phone from his hand. He was getting better at reading, now, so he could read whatever Hyunjin had pulled up on his phone a bit easier than he could a few months ago. It still took him several minutes to process it, but when he finished, he looked up at Hyunjin with wide eyes.

“A competition?” Jeongin said.

“Yes!” Hyunjin grinned and bounced excitedly. “I can send in all of my best photos and if they like it they’ll display it in the gallery on-campus! _And_ I’ll get money and recognition from it! This could be my first big break-through!”

“That’s amazing!” Jeongin exclaimed, now bouncing with excitement too. “You have to do this!”

“I’m going to!” Hyunjin said. “I have a couple photos already in mind, but I have some new ideas too! So, I was wondering, could you maybe pose for me?”

Jeongin grinned. “Of course! Clothes on, though.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, _obviously_. I’m not gonna show the nude photos we take to everyone else, no matter how artistic they are.”

Jeongin shoved him for that, but Hyunjin just laughed and grabbed onto Jeongin’s arm and used it to pull him into a kiss.

(That was a joke, by the way. Jeongin _obviously_ never let Hyunjin take nude pictures of him. Clearly.)

Hyunjin somehow managed to wrangle Felix and Seungmin into the photoshoot as well. Changbin was a bit offended that Hyunjin didn’t ask _him,_ but Hyunjin replied with, “You don’t fit the concept! I’m going for a delicate, fairy-like look. And the three of them have ridiculously delicate features, I mean, look at them.”

“We’re pretty boys,” Felix said, striking a pose.

“Exactly!” Hyunjin said.

Changbin pouted at that, and Hyunjin promised to do a completely different photoshoot and concept just for him. That seemed to placate Changbin for the time being.

It took a few days, but when Hyunjin put the finishing touches on his project, he invited everyone over to his and Jeongin’s apartment for the big reveal. Jeongin had already seen them, so he stood by Hyunjin’s side, beaming proudly as Hyunjin showed off the massive prints. The others just stood there and gaped at the photos for a few seconds, which seemed to make Hyunjin momentarily panic. He glanced at Jeongin, silently asking, _Do they not like it?_ Jeongin just smiled and gestured for him to wait.

Then Felix said, “ _Damn_ , I look _good_!”

“Those are beautiful, Hyunjin!” Seungmin said, still gaping at the photos. His eyes were sparkling—a telltale sign that he was being sincere.

“I want a copy of those,” Changbin added. “They’re giving me all kinds of ideas for a new story. I think I want to do a fae concept now. Ooh, I could play into all the different kinds of lore out there and put my own spin on it…” He pulled out his notebook, already scribbling ideas.

“Those are going to win for _sure_ ,” Seungmin said, grinning at Hyunjin as he stepped forward and gave him a hug.

“Oh, good.” Hyunjin breathed a sigh of relief. “I was really worried, honestly. You guys weren’t saying anything!”

“We were in shock by the pure artistry!” Felix said, patting Hyunjin on the back.

“I think this calls for a toast?” Changbin said. He held up the bottle of champagne he had brought for the occasion. Leave it to Changbin to know exactly which alcohol to bring to any kind of event.

“Do that in the kitchen, though, I don’t want it getting all over the carpet!” Jeongin said.

“I know, I know,” Changbin said, moving to the kitchen. “You guys ready?”

He shook the champagne just a little and popped off the cork, which went flying and almost took out a lightbulb in the ceiling. The champagne came pouring out, and Changbin gave Jeongin a sheepish look as Jeongin stared him down. Then they turned their attention to pouring the drinks for everyone, and it was all forgotten.

“We’re going to need to do something big for when he actually wins,” Seungmin said after they toasted to Hyunjin. “Maybe go to a fancy restaurant?”

“Go clubbin’!” Changbin exclaimed.

“No!” Jeongin said, laughing.

“What? _Yes_!” Felix said.

“No!” Jeongin said.

“Yes!”

They went back and forth, each of them progressively laughing harder and harder until they just shoved each other and called it quits. They moved on to more important things, like admiring Hyunjin’s work, since that was the whole point they were here anyways. Though, in the end, the two of them spent more time admiring their significant others than anything.

Near the end of the night, Jeongin’s eyes met Hyunjin’s, and they smiled at each other.

“I have a new dream,” Hyunjin said later, after everyone had gone home and the two of them were in bed, after doing a _little_ bit more than just kissing.

“What’s your new dream?” Jeongin asked, perfectly content from where he was laying in Hyunjin’s arms.

“I want to travel the world,” Hyunjin said. “And take photos. Maybe be a nature photographer. Or be a fashion photographer. Can you imagine how cool that would be to travel to different fashion shows and events and take glamorous photos all day? I would _love_ that.”

“They might mistake you as a model.” Jeongin grinned.

“No, they’ll mistake _you_ as a model,” Hyunjin said, kissing Jeongin’s slightly-sweaty forehead. “You’ll come with me, right?”

“Of course!”

“Good.” Hyunjin smiled. Jeongin tilted his head up so they could kiss again. “i don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Jeongin didn’t say anything right away, mostly because that made his heart sink more than anything. Hyunjin noticed the way the playful light faded from his eyes. He could always sense when Jeongin was feeling down, and Jeongin could do the same to him. They could practically read each other’s minds at this point.

“What?” Hyunjin asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just thinking about how we only have a few years left together,” Jeongin said sadly. “It’s going to go by too quickly. And then we’ll have to live on without each other for the rest of our lives.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, actually,” Hyunjin said.

Jeongin looked up at him. “You have?”

“Yeah.” Hyunjin shifted uncomfortably, suddenly shy. “I was thinking…we know you have to go back to the Celestial Sphere, but after dealing with Jisung and Minho, something occurred to me.” He looked at Jeongin. “Who says you can’t shift back into a human again and come back to Earth for a little bit? Jisung and Minho are gonna do that. They’ll probably shift into newer versions of the same body, like some weird-ass clones or something. Why can’t you do that too?”

Jeongin blinked. The thought had never occurred to him. Not even Woojin and Chan did that. Though, he supposed Woojin and Chan had everything they needed up in the Celestial Sphere. They didn’t need to come down every once in awhile. They didn’t even need to talk to Jeongin and could instead have Jisung or Minho deliver a message to Jeongin. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible for Jeongin…

“Just a thought,” Hyunjin said. “I have thought about other things, too.”

“Other things?” Jeongin asked.

“Yeah, well, we’ve never _really_ talked about what happens when you go back to the Celestial Sphere, so I just…wanted to discuss it further. I don’t want to assume anything.”

“Okay…”

Hyunjin took a deep breath and said, “Even if you can’t shift back into a human every now and then, I’ll be okay without you on Earth for a little while. I’ll still have Seungmin and Felix. Probably not Changbin, unfortunately, because I think he has only like three or five years left before he has to go back. But I’ll be okay, Jeongin, really. I won’t be as lost or as lonely as I was before I met you.”

His words were already bringing tears to Jeongin’s eyes, but Jeongin nodded and let him continue.

“When my life comes to an end here on Earth, though, I was wondering…” Hyunjin took a deep breath. “Can I come to the Sphere with you? Like Chan did with Woojin? Is that possible?”

“It has to be,” Jeongin said without missing a beat. “I’ll even bully Felix into granting that wish if he doesn’t do it right away.”

“Oh, good.” Hyunjin smiled softly. “So, you’ll want to be with me forever like that? I, um, I wasn’t sure if you’d get sick of me and just want to be free of—”

Jeongin shut him up by grabbing his face and kissing him. It was a bit more aggressive than any of their last few kisses, which took Hyunjin by surprise.

When Jeongin pulled back, Hyunjin just blinked up at him with wide eyes.

“I want to be with you forever and ever,” Jeongin said. “I never thought for a moment that I wouldn’t be with you in the Celestial Sphere.”

Hyunjin breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I want to be with you forever and ever too, Jeongin.”

Jeongin smiled and kissed him again, though much softer and gentler this time.

“We’ll find a way,” he murmured. “I promise.”

Hyunjin nodded. “I know we will.”

Then they fell asleep in each others arms, like they always did.

A few days later, Hyunjin came barreling back into the bookstore, nearly scaring the shit out Jeongin, who yelped and dropped the book he was scanning for a customer when Hyunjin burst through the door.

“The results are out!” Hyunjin exclaimed.

“Oh!” Jeongin jumped up and down. “I just—hold on, let me just finish up.”

“Okay! I’ll meet you upstairs!” And then Hyunjin turned and dashed away.

Jeongin blushed and had to apologize to the customer profusely. The customer was a sweet old lady who had been coming to this store for years. She told him not to worry about it and that she was happy to see the two of them so happy together. That put a smile on Jeongin’s face for the rest of his shift.

He closed a few minutes early that day and rushed upstairs, finding Hyunjin sitting at the kitchen table, his knee bouncing with anticipation.

“Have you looked yet?” Jeongin asked, darting over to his side.

“Nope, I was waiting for you,” Hyunjin said. “I’m almost too scared to look at it.”

“Do you want me to?”

Hyunjin hesitated, then nodded. “Please.”

Jeongin nodded and picked up his phone. Hyunjin looked up at him with wide eyes, then realized he couldn’t take it and dropped his face into his hands, hiding his eyes from view.

Jeongin looked through the results and drew in a slow, deep breath.

“I didn’t get it, did I?” Hyunjin said, still not looking up. “Did I at least get third place or something? That’s better than nothing. I’d still get some prize money—”

“First place,” Jeongin said. He looked up from the phone, a grin already spreading across his face. “Hwang Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin’s head snapped up at that, his eyes growing impossibly wider as his mouth fell open. “You—you’re serious?”

Jeongin nodded, happy tears now making their way to his eyes. He held out the phone to Hyunjin, who grabbed it to get a better look. Jeongin watched as awe and shock made their way across Hyunjin’s face.

“You did it!” Jeongin said, already bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You did it, Hyunjin!”

Hyunjin let out a laugh of disbelief and sank back into his chair, suddenly too overwhelmed to stand. “I did it. Oh my god, I won. They’re going to display my work. And some big wigs might see it. Oh my god.”

He sat in stunned silence for a few moments before he looked up at Jeongin, who was grinning at him.

“I did it, Jeongin!” he exclaimed, jumping up and throwing his arms around Jeongin. Jeongin cheered and hugged him back, though that cheer turned into a scream in surprise as Hyunjin suddenly picked him up and spun him around.

They laughed and spun around the kitchen a few more times before Hyunjin finally stopped and gazed up at Jeongin, his face glowing. When Jeongin grinned down at him, Hyunjin kissed him right then and there.

They told their friends, of course, who were ecstatic. Changbin even ran forward and picked Hyunjin up and spun him around like Hyunjin had done to Jeongin. Hyunjin screamed and tried to tell Changbin to put him down, though the words didn’t really come out well due to the fact that he was laughing too hard.

They ended up going out to a fancy restaurant, like Seungmin had promised, and they even got all dressed up for the occasion. Seungmin did the toast as well, holding up his wine glass and saying, “To Hyunjin, who’s going places!”

“To Hyunjin!” the others said, while Hyunjin turned bright red but laughed anyways.

They all clinked their glasses together and downed their drinks.

Before they could break into conversation, though, Changbin suddenly stood up with his refilled glass.

“I, uh, wanted to say a few words,” he said.

“You’ve said a few words just now,” Seungmin said.

Changbin gave him a look, and Seungmin grinned shamelessly. Changbin snorted and shook his head before correcting himself, “I wanted to make a toast of my own.”

Jeongin smiled at him from where he was sitting on the edge of his seat, with Hyunjin’s arm draped around his shoulders. “Go on, Binnie! We’re listening!” he said.

Changbin smiled back at him. “Honestly, I wasn’t very social when I came to Earth. I wanted to come here for the same reasons as everyone else—I felt lost and lonely and wanted to do something about it. So I came. And it was rough. It was really, really rough. I didn’t understand the culture or how humans worked, really, so it was a difficult adjustment for me. For awhile I actually felt even more alone here than I did up in the Celestial Sphere.”

He paused, mostly to take a deep breath to steel himself. Then he continued, “But luckily Woojin found me. He was the best friend I could ever ask for. He really took care of me. I started writing and even published my first book because he encouraged me to. So when he left, it really hurt. I felt really low again for a long time. I tried putting my feelings into words like I had in the past, but it didn’t really work. I thought I’d actually give up down here and go back to the Sphere. And then Hyunjin showed up.”

Hyunjin smiled—a big, happy smile that made his eyes turn into crescents.

Changbin’s own smile widened as he focused on Hyunjin more than anyone else. “You and Jeongin really helped me get out of that low point. You gave me something to do and reminded me of my purpose. And then you introduced me to Felix and Seungmin and now I have friends again. I don’t feel so alone or lost anymore.” He raised his glass. “So, I wanted to thank you, Hyunjin, for helping me out. I hope you have many more successful and happy days in the future. To Hyunjin.”

“To Hyunjin!” Jeongin and the others shouted out, lifting their glasses a second time.

“No, to Changbin,” Hyunjin said, lifting his glass. “Because without him, I literally wouldn’t be in such a happy place with the love of my life and a great group of friends.”

“To Changbin!” Jeongin and the others now shouted instead.

Changbin blushed but raised his glass too. When he sat down, Hyunjin made sure to shove his shoulder playfully, and Jeongin even reached across Hyunjin to pat Changbin on the hand. For the rest of the night, Changbin couldn’t stop smiling.

Later, when Hyunjin and Jeongin were alone back at their apartment, Jeongin grinned at Hyunjin and hugged him and kissed him.

“Congratulations, baby,” he said, pausing from kissing to nuzzle Hyunjin’s face. “I’m so proud of you!” Then he kissed him again.

Hyunjin grinned into their kiss and, when they were done, hugged Jeongin tighter than he ever had before. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jeongin said, his eyes still closed from the kiss. He smiled.

“Also—did I ever tell you that you look absolutely _divine_ all dressed up like that? The whole suit and tie thing is really getting to me.”

Jeongin just laughed and let Hyunjin pick him and carry him to the bedroom. Of course, Jeongin cupped the sides of his face and planted kisses all over his face the entire way.

The show at the gallery was incredible. All of their friends came, as well as some professors and other college students, but there was also guests from magazines and other galleries coming to scout out the talent. Hyunjin was a jittery, happy mess the entire time. Jeongin thought he looked stunning, all dressed up in a navy-blue suit with his dark hair parted to show off his forehead. He also looked ridiculously cute, always blushing and stumbling over his words when people came up and complimented him on his work. A few people recognized Jeongin, Felix, and Seungmin from the portraits and complimented them too. Jeongin smiled and thanked them, though he was starting to understand why Hyunjin was blushing so much from the attention.

The whole thing lasted a couple of hours, full of drinks and finger food and conversation. The five of them made sure to take a selfie in front of Hyunjin’s photos on the wall as well. One of them was serious, while another was silly. Hyunjin declared that _both_ of them were going into a photo album he was creating just for them.

When it was time to go home, Jeongin could tell that Hyunjin was happy but exhausted. Jeongin was exhausted too. They barely managed to kick off their shoes and take off their jackets before collapsing onto the bed. Hyunjin snuggled into Jeongin’s arms, already yawning and dozing off. Jeongin smiled, kissed his forehead goodnight, and fell asleep too.

A few days later, Hyunjin got a call from a major magazine. They wanted to take him on as an intern. Hyunjin would not stop screaming and jumping around.

And, of course, Jeongin screamed and jumped around with him too.

*

A year later, Hyunjin asked Jeongin to marry him.

They were at the beach, when the sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful mixture of reds, pinks, oranges, and lavenders. It was the anniversary of the day when Hyunjin gave Jeongin the photo album and confessed to him through the love letters. Jeongin screamed and burst into tears when Hyunjin got down on one knee and held up the ring. Then he threw his arms around Hyunjin, who picked him up and spun him around like he always did. It ended with a kiss, as usual.

They got married on the beach, on the day of an eclipse, so Jisung and Minho could be there. Through their experience with shifting into human for a single day, they were able to tell Woojin and Chan how to do it too. Jeongin burst into tears when he saw Woojin before the wedding, who smiled and pulled him into a tight hug. Woojin told Jeongin that he looked stunning in his white suit with a single red rose pinned to the lapel (which matched Hyunjin’s, of course). And he told Jeongin how happy he was for him and how much he had missed him.

Jeongin responded by telling him that it was his fault the wedding wouldn’t start on time, now, because he had made one of the grooms cry. Woojin just laughed and hugged him again.

It really was one of the best days of Jeongin’s life. All of his friends were there. Felix was his best man. Hyunjin had been torn between making either Seungmin or Changbin his best man, but in the end, Seungmin had let Changbin be the best man since Seungmin had wanted to be the photographer.

“Besides, you’re better with speeches than I am,” Seungmin had told Changbin.

And Changbin _did_ give a good speech at the reception. He only made a few people cry near the end, including himself. But he also made people laugh more than anything, especially when he described how he got Hyunjin and Jeongin to confess to each other in the first place. It was like watching a stand-up comedy routine.

Then everyone laughed and enjoyed good food (especially the cake! Which Jeongin shoved in Hyunjin’s face when it was time to cut it) and had a great time dancing for hours and hours.

Jeongin and Hyunjin ended up leaving a bit early, since they were leaving for the honeymoon right after. Changbin, Seungmin, and Felix apparently were in charge of decorating the car, and they made sure to go all out. There were streamers off the back of the car and little red hearts drawn all over the sides and a massive JUST MARRIED on the back window, as well as on all of the side windows. Felix tried drawing a little fox, while Seungmin drew a llama (because apparently that’s what Hyunjin reminded him of). Neither came out very well, but it was the thought that counted.

“I wanted to write the whole ‘love is patient, love is kind’ thing but Felix and Seungmin convinced me not to,” Changbin told Jeongin and Hyunjin when the two of them saw the car for the first time.

“We had to put him in a headlock to hold him back,” Seungmin said. “It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Jeongin and Hyunjin exchanged glances at that, not entirely sure how to react other than by laughing.

While they were on their way to the airport, though, Jeongin asked, “Where are we going, exactly?”

“Don’t know,” Hyunjin said with a grin. “Anywhere you want. I figured we’d choose when we get there.”

Jeongin gasped at that. “I want to see the Northern Lights! And the Eiffel Tower! And all of those really pretty murals in Italy! And the Great Wall of China, and Hawaii, and—” he kept rattling off different places he wanted to go, which made Hyunjin laugh.

“Okay, okay, pick _one_ ,” Hyunjin said.

Jeongin’s eyes went wide. “I can’t just pick _one_! They all seem so cool…”

“Then we’ll write them on slips of paper and put them in a hat and draw one randomly.”

“Where do _you_ want to go?” Jeongin asked.

Hyunjin shrugged, then glanced over at Jeongin. He smiled. “I just want to be with you.”

“Aww,” Jeongin said. “That’s so cheesy.”

Hyunjin laughed. “It’s the truth, though!”

They ended up going to Hawaii, since Hyunjin knew how much Jeongin loved the beach.

*

Fifteen years passed, and then it was time for Jeongin to go. It wasn’t easy, but he and Hyunjin had prepared for this.

They stood on the beach again—Jeongin’s favorite place in the world. Well, second favorite, since tied for first were his place by Hyunjin’s side or in Hyunjin’s arms. He told Hyunjin so, and Hyunjin laughed at how cheesy it was even though he was still crying.

They hugged one last time, with Jeongin burying his face into the crook of Hyunjin’s neck. Hyunjin weaved his fingers into Jeongin’s hair and held on tightly. They lost track of time of how long they held onto each other like that. It could have been only a few minutes. Could have been a few hours. Either way, it wasn’t long enough.

Finally, Jeongin pulled away. Hyunjin cupped his face in his hands and wiped away the tears on Jeongin’s cheeks.

“Did you have a good life, at least?” Hyunjin asked.

Jeongin nodded, biting his lip to stop the tears. “The best. Thanks to you.”

Hyunjin smiled. Then he leaned forward and kissed him. One last time. He hoped it conveyed everything he had wanted to say but had never gotten the chance. At the very least, it told him one important thing. And that was—

“I love you,” Jeongin said when Hyunjin pulled away. “More than anything.”

“I love you too,” Hyunjin said. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Jeongin nodded again. They were going to do what Jisung and Minho had been doing. He was going to come down and visit Hyunjin in human form every once in awhile. They really would see each other again soon.

He smiled now at Hyunjin, even though his lips were trembling as he attempted to hold back more tears.

Hyunjin nodded back to him, and Jeongin took a step back. He looked up at the sky. The sun had gone down hours ago. The constellations had long since come out. Jeongin could see Ursa Major and a new, unnamed constellation right next to it. Orion wasn’t up yet, since he was a winter constellation. But Jeongin be up there with all of them soon.

The moon was up already. He smiled down at Jeongin.

Jeongin smiled up at them before looking at Hyunjin one last time. Hyunjin was currently sniffling and wiping away the tears on his face, but he still smiled at Jeongin. Jeongin gave one last wave as his body began to glow.

Hyunjin watched him for as long as he could, but when the light became too much, he shielded his eyes and looked away. When the light died down and he looked back, Jeongin was gone.

But he wasn’t gone completely. Hyunjin looked up at the sky, where he could see Ursa Major and Cassiopeia and Cygnus and Aquila and Lyra. He could see the Summer Triangle.

And right in the center of that triangle was a tiny, dim constellation that had disappeared from view in the past fifteen or so years. No one really noticed that it had faded, since no one had ever really looked in the first place.

But Hyunjin looked. And he smiled. The tiny constellation of Vulpecula sparkled down at him, like he was smiling back. Knowing him, he definitely was.

*

Decades passed. The name “Hwang Hyunjin” wasn’t a household one—that is, unless it was a household of aspiring photographers—but it was a successful one. “Hwang Hyunjin” was a name with hundreds of awards to it as well as an extensive list of all the magazines his work had been used in. He had traveled the world when he was younger, going to remote areas to photograph rare and endangered animals. Shortly after that, he went into the fashion industry, photographing fashion shows and new designs and impressing and inspiring many with a variety of concepts. Hwang Hyunjin, people said, could do anything. Any kind of concept. He was incredible.

However, his most famous photo wasn’t one of a gorgeous model with a work of art on her body. His most famous photo wasn’t a rare image of a snow leopard or the melting glaciers.

No, his most famous photo was that of a fox. A red fox. It was titled, _Vulpecula._

If you asked him about that photo, he’d tell you it was also one of his favorite photos ever, though not his all-time favorite. He would say that nothing could beat the photos he took of his husband when he first started out with photography. You could ask him about his husband, but he wouldn’t tell you anything useful. He wouldn’t tell you his name or how they met or what he looked like or even where he was now. All he would tell you is that he loved him more than anything and missed him very much. And honestly, you would be okay with that. It was all you really needed to know anyways.

Hwang Hyunjin was a successful, happy man. He had lived a good life. He had gotten to live his dream. He didn’t have many regrets.

He was old now, though. He lived alone in a luxurious cabin in a beautiful forest. The cabin overlooked a rocky beach, and he liked to sit out on his porch and watch the sunset every day. He liked watching the stars and the constellations come out. He looked up at them every single night. Or, he looked up at one specific constellation.

One night, he decided to walk out on the beach. It took him a bit, since he had long since started suffering from arthritis, but he made it. He made it just in time to sit down on a smooth rock and look up at the stars. At his favorite constellation, Vulpecula. It was dimmer than usual tonight. Usually that would worry Hyunjin, but tonight, it made him smile.

“Are you coming to get me?” he asked.

The constellation shimmered but otherwise didn’t change. Hyunjin snorted and looked down at the beach again. He couldn’t help smiling a bit wider when he saw a familiar shape sitting on the sand a few feet away from him.

It was a red fox. To anyone else, at first glance, it looked like an ordinary fox. But if they looked a little bit closer, they would see the faint glow around it, almost like it wasn’t of this world.

Hyunjin felt his old heart swell when he saw that fox. It was just as beautiful as he remembered. It was smiling at him.

“I’m not getting up and walking over there,” Hyunjin said. “You’re gonna have to come get me.”

The fox rolled its eyes at that, but it was still smiling. It got up and started walking over. When it reached Hyunjin, though, it wasn’t a fox anymore. Rather, it had shifted into a young man, whose face glowed with happiness as he looked down at Hyunjin.

“Hi, Jinnie,” Jeongin said.

“Hi, Innie.” Hyunjin smiled up at him. “It’s been a long time.”

“Really? It’s gone by quickly for me.” Jeongin gave him a shit-eating grin.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes and held out his hand. “Yeah, yeah, don’t you dare make old man jokes or else I’m going to ask you to just leave me here to die. Help me up.”

Jeongin giggled but reached out to take Hyunjin’s hand. The moment they touched, Hyunjin’s own hand started to glow. The glow spread throughout Hyunjin’s body, and by the time Jeongin pulled him to his feet, Jeongin was looking at the bright, young face he had initially fallen in love with all those years ago.

Hyunjin smiled at Jeongin, who smiled back.

“Ready?” Jeongin asked.

“Not yet,” Hyunjin said.

Jeongin’s smile disappeared as he looked at Hyunjin with wide, worried eyes.

Hyunjin grinned before he leaned forward and kissed him. Jeongin sighed in relief and closed his eyes, enjoying the moment. It had been so long since their last one.

Hyunjin pulled back and grinned at him again. “Okay,” he said. “Ready.”

“I love you,” Jeongin said.

“I love you too,” Hyunjin said. “Now, show me the stars.”

“Gladly.” Jeongin grinned. The two of them began to glow more, the light growing brighter and brighter, just like they had seen it do a handful of times before. This time, though, Hyunjin didn’t find it difficult to look at Jeongin at all. He could reach out and cup Jeongin’s face and gaze into his eyes with all his love, a love that hadn’t faded in the slightest over the years they had been apart. And Jeongin could do the same back, knowing that the love he felt for Hyunjin would never, ever change.

And so the light surrounding them glowed and glowed to the point where it was blinding. Then it shot upwards, towards the sky and beyond.

If anyone were to look at the constellation Vulpecula from that moment on, they’d notice that it seemed to glow brighter than even the constellations in the Summer Triangle. They might also notice the small, unnamed constellation beside it, one that hadn’t been there before. And if they looked closer still, they would see the tiny line of light connecting the two, as if the two were holding hands.

No one really cared to look regardless, but that was alright. After all, Vulpecula had stopped looking at them. Nowadays, it was too busy staring at the gorgeous constellation beside it, a constellation that looked right back at it without fail, a constellation that truly saw Vulpecula for what it was and loved it more than anything else in the universe.

And Vulpecula, of course, loved it back just as intensely.

For it was that constellation that had saved Vulpecula, that had kept Vulpecula from its sadness and loneliness and from ever fading away. It had initially saved Vulpecula all those years ago and it had saved it every single day since.

Vulpecula, finally in all its millions of years of existence, was no longer a lonely constellation.

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s a wrap! What’d you guys think?
> 
> I just wanted to thank all of you readers for giving this series some love and support. I see the same names pop up in the kudos and in the comments and it seriously puts a smile on my face every time! When I first started writing this, I didn’t think many people would like it, like, I honestly never even expected each part to get more than like two-hundred hits. So when people started to take notice of this and leave such lovely comments on each part, it meant a lot to me! You guys kept me going <3
> 
> I’m just really glad I got to connect with you all through this story. So, one last time, to all of you—THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!! <3 <3 <3 Haha until next time! <3


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